Watkins Glen: Sterling Marlin race summary

Coors Light Team has engine trouble at The Glen.
Marlin maintains Winston Cup championship points lead.

WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. (August 11, 2002) - Sterling Marlin drove the No. 40 Coors Light Dodge Intrepid R/T to a 30th place finish in the Sirius Satellite Radio at Watkins Glen International road course. For the 21st straight race (Rockingham to Watkins Glen), Marlin remains the leader in the NASCAR Winston Cup championship points standings. He has a 53-point lead over Mark Martin who is currently in second place.

The Coors Light team had a weekend full of engine trouble at Watkins Glen International. At the end of practice on Friday morning, Marlin's No. 40 Dodge blew an engine and the team had to work diligently to replace it prior to qualifying that afternoon. Although Marlin qualified in 28th position, he started at the rear of the field on Sunday because the team changed engines.

At the start of the race, the Coors Light Dodge was consistently moving up through the field until Marlin radioed in that the car "blew up" on lap 34. Marlin's Dodge was down a cylinder and he had to race the remaining 60 laps carefully in order to keep the car on the track and earning points for the championship points race. Marlin managed to keep the car on the lead lap, finishing in 28th position and maintaining the points lead.

"I wasn't sure how it would shake out at the end, but it could have been worse," Marlin said. "We were hoping we could come out of here with a top-10, but it didn't work out that way today. We'll get 'em next week at Michigan. I won the second race there last year, and it was the first for Dodge, so that's a special race for me. We need to win another one and start making these points go the other way."

Tony Stewart, driver of the No. 20 Home Depot Pontiac, won the Sirius Satellite Radio at The Glen. Next on the schedule for the No. 40 Coors Light team is the Pepsi 400 at Michigan International Speedway on August 18, 2002.

-cgr-