Columnist Brian Hildebrand: Marlin aims to play catch-up to Gordon

Brian Hildebrand

Friday, Dec. 11, 1998 | 11:08 a.m.

It was quite a year for NASCAR Winston Cup champion Jeff Gordon and his Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet.

Gordon won a record-tying 13 races and posted a staggering 19 top-five finishes en route to his third series championship in four seasons.

Like Gordon, Sterling Marlin drives a Chevrolet Monte Carlo on the Winston Cup circuit. But Gordon's success doesn't necessarily bode well for other Chevy drivers, Marlin said.

"If you really look at it, the 24 car was the only Chevrolet that ran good -- I mean real good," Marlin said. "We had a couple moments in the sun, but at the time it was basically three or four Fords up front."

In an attempt to catch up to the Ford Taurus, which made its debut this year at the Daytona 500, Chevrolet is introducing a new body style on the Monte Carlo for 1999. The new design will be unveiled at the Coca Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway in May.

Marlin -- who is in Las Vegas this week to attend the National Finals Rodeo as a guest of his sponsor, Coors -- is hoping the new design will allow the Chevys to run with the Fords.

"(Chevrolet) had a good race car, and we've worked on it and fine-tuned it, but I think they probably might have found something that's going to be a little better and that's what they want to do," Marlin said of the redesign.

Marlin, who just completed his first season driving the No. 40 Coors Light Monte Carlo for Team Sabco, said he doesn't believe Gordon's domination is a healthy thing for the sport.

"People like to see different winners -- I know I do; I don't like to see the same guy win every week," Marlin said. "I mean, if you're winning, it's fine, but I don't think anybody wants to see the same people (win) every week."

In order to knock Gordon and his Rainbow Warriors off their perch, however, Marlin said every team is going to have to work that much harder.

"It's a deal where you think you're pretty good and all of a sudden (Gordon's team) steps it up a little more and gets a little faster," he said.

"They've got Ray Evernham, who's probably one of the sharpest crew chiefs to ever come through the gate, and they've just got a real good race team and they've got stuff going their way right now."

A two-time winner of the Daytona 500 (1994-95) and winner of six races while driving for Morgan-McClure racing, Marlin enters the 1999 season looking for his first win with Felix Sabates' race team.

In 32 starts this season, Marlin posted six top-10 and 23 top-20 showings and won one of the qualifying races for the Daytona 500. Although he has yet to visit victory circle with Sabates, Marlin doesn't regret making the move.

"It has been great, I love it," Marlin said. "The Sabco team and especially Coors, they've been just great to me; they're the best sponsor that I've ever been associated with. You get to do a lot of neat things with them and they really take good care of you."

Even in a season in which he did not win a race, Marlin is able to find reason to be optimistic entering his 14th full season in the Winston Cup Series.

"We won a qualifying race in Daytona and went from (34th) to 13th in the points and had a good chance to win Martinsville and a real good chance to win Sonoma," he said. "We improved a helluva lot, we've just got to work a little harder this winter and try to get better."

NASCAR

Team owners Tom Gloy and Bobby Rahal have announced that Kevin Caldwell will serve as crew chief of the Ron Barfield-driven Icehouse Beer Ford truck for Gloy-Rahal Racing in the 1999 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series.

Caldwell, 35, joins the Icehouse team with an extensive background as a driver, mechanic and crew chief. Caldwell drove to five Oklahoma late-model championships and seven track titles before age 30.

As a mechanic, Caldwell wrenched on two Winston Cup operations from 1993 to 1995 before serving as crew chief of three NASCAR Grand National teams from 1996 to 1998.

Most recently, Caldwell worked with Team 34 on the David Green-driven Busch Grand National Series team that recorded five consecutive top-five finishes in 1998. ...

Mattei Motorsports, which fielded the No. 7 Ford Taurus driven by Geoff Bodine in 1998, is changing more than drivers for the 1999 Winston Cup season.

Team owner Jim Mattei not only named a new driver in Michael Waltrip, he also is making the switch from Ford to Chevrolet. The Monte Carlo will continue to carry the sponsorship of Phillips.

Mattei will team up with Team Sabco in 1999 to share information on engine, chassis and aerodynamic development.

CART

Las Vegas resident Paul Tracy inked a three-year deal to continue driving for Team Kool Green.

Tracy has 13 career wins and 12 career poles in the CART FedEx Championship Series.

In conjunction with the announcement, Team Kool Green also confirmed that Brown & Williamson Tobacco Company will return to the team in 1999 and invest more than $50 million in sponsorship through 2001.

"The amount of money which will flow to Team Green as a result of the agreement ... will spare the team's owners the effort which might otherwise be expended in recruiting several co-sponsors," team owner Barry Green said.

IRL

Sam Schmidt of Henderson is testing today and tomorrow at Walt Disney World Speedway in Orlando, Fla., with Treadway Racing, even though Schmidt has yet to sign a contract to drive for team owner Fred Treadway.

Schmidt is set to replace two-time Indy 500 winner Arie Luyendyk behind the wheel of the No. 5 G-Force/Aurora -- providing primary sponsor Sprint PCS renews its contract with the team.

Treadway Racing has not yet received its update kit for the G-Force chassis, so the team will be running Schmidt's updated Dallara chassis during the test.

Backmarkers

Las Vegas drivers Kory Scheeler and Larry Job brought the first car across the finish line and earned $10,000 in the Terrible's Town 250 in Pahrump.

Scheeler and Job finished the race, promoted by the Best in the Desert Racing Association, in a time of 5 hours and 6 minutes.

Ty Davis and Donnie Book finished first in the motorcycle class in 4 hours, 48 minutes.

Russell and Nick Pearson on Las Vegas finished third in the Open Pro class and third overall with a time of 5:01:25. ...

For those of you with satellite dishes, Speedvision will air last month's Baja 1000 desert race six times in December. A one-hour special celebrating Ivan Stewart's overall win in the 1,070-mile race first will air tonight at 6. The other airings are scheduled for Saturday at 10 a.m.; next Tuesday at 9 p.m.; next Friday at noon; Dec. 20 at 11 p.m.; and Dec. 26 at noon.