Marlin hopes to give his career a boost with help from Boyer

Rusty’s son looks like
he can do this, too
■ The official preseason testing this
Steve Wallace, Rusty’s 17-year-old son,
turned some heads recently by winning the annual Snowball Derby at Five Flags Speedway in
Pensacola, Fla., and he will compete full-time
this year in the USAR Hooters ProCup Series
with sponsorship from Miller Lite, his father’s
Cup sponsor.
Wallace suffered serious injuries in a USAR
race held last August in Bristol, Tenn.
“It was my fault,” he recalled. “I was dehydrated, miserable and about to fall out of the
seat. When the car got loose and took off up
the track, I (panicked). After that wreck at Bristol, I slowed down as a driver. I became less of
a daredevil and more of a driver.”
year will not be confined only to Daytona. NASCAR will permit its teams
to test at Las Vegas Motor Speedway
Jan. 31-Feb. 2 and at California
Speedway Feb. 1-3.
■ The annual Daytona tests, long a
staple of the offseason, are scheduled for Jan. 11-13 and 18-20.
■ This year, at most tracks, all the
cars will be impounded after qualifying. “Ultimately, all the teams will arrive at the track with a focus on one
goal,” said Nextel Cup director John
Darby. “That goal will be to have the
best possible race setup, and hopefully that will enhance the overall
competitive element throughout the
field.”
Gordon bramnching out
into the wine business
Jeff Gordon will market a series of upscale
wines, the first of which will be available in October 2005. The wines, labeled “Jeff Gordon
Collection,” will be made by Briggs & Sons
Winemaking of Calistoga, Calif. I’m sure the
folks in Darlington will love that.
■ The proposed New York City track,
on Staten Island, will not open until
2009 at the earliest, and there are
many obstacles, not the least among
them a considerable amount of political opposition, to be surmounted.
— Monte Dutton
■ NASCAR’s new gear rule was sup-
posedly devised “to contain team
costs and further enhance competiton.” The new rule will restrict teams
to NASCAR-determined gear ratios at
each event. The rule will be in effect
at every track except Daytona and
Talladega.
Fireball Roberts was
a real racing pioneer
■ Those two tracks are also the ex-
ception to a new spoiler rule. All rear
spoilers will be 4 1/2 inches high,
an inch shorter than last year. The
supposed result is to “further reduce
‘aero push’ while enhancing the
competitive aspect in terms of racing
and passing ability.”
■ Once the Daytona 500 is over, the
absence of North Carolina Speedway
will be more noticeable. The Feb. 27
race this year will be the first of two
at California Speedway in Fontana.
John Clark/NASCAR This Week
Petty still feeling his way
It was another tough year for Kyle Petty, son of NASCAR legend Richard Petty. Kyle finished
33rd in the points standings. He did not finish in the top 10 in any race last season, and
finished in the top 20 only five times, with his best finish being 12th at Las Vegas in the
season’s third race. “It’s been tough,” said Petty. “But you just have to keep working it.”
Glenn “Fireball” Roberts was the first driver
to win multiple superspeedway events in four
consecutive seasons (1960-63), and he won at
least one race on what were then known as
“Grand Slam tracks” for six consecutive seasons (1958-63).
At the time of his death, Roberts was the
only driver with five 500-mile victories during
his career. Roberts’ death occurred as a result
of severe burns suffered in the World 600 at
Charlotte Motor Speedway in May 1964.
— Monte Dutton
Marlin hopes to give his career a boost with help from Boyer
By Monte Dutton
NASCAR This Week
Sterling Marlin is one of
many veteran drivers hoping
to return to victory lane this
season.
Marlin, from Columbia,
Tenn., finished 21st in the 2004
Nextel Cup standings, finishing
only three races in the top five
and failing to complete nine of
the 36 races.
On what are Marlin and owner Chip Ganassi hanging hopes
for a comeback? Ganassi promoted engineer Steve Boyer to
crew chief of Marlin’s Dodge
team.
“It’s a deal where you move
some personnel around and
try to get the chemistry
right,” Marlin told the
Nashville Tennessean. “A lot
of other teams are doing the
same thing.”
Team manager Tony Glover
directed the team for the final
six races of last season, and
Marlin finished in the top 20 in
five of them with a fourthplace finish in Martinsville, Va.
Over the final six races, Marlin’s points total was the series’
ninth best.
An injury cost Marlin, 47, a
realistic chance at the championship in 2002, but the last two
seasons have been subpar.
“It’s not like somebody totally new is coming in,” Marlin
said, referring to his new crew
chief. “Steve has been around
the team a lot and we’re all familiar with each other. I think
he’ll do a good job.”
Marlin will also compete in
14 Busch Series races driving for the Fitz-Bradshaw
team.
■
‘Powerful’ team — When
Kerry Earnhardt competes
full-time in the Craftsman
Truck Series this year, he will
do so with engines provided by
Dale Earnhardt Inc.
Earnhardt, the half-brother
of Dale Earnhardt Jr., has
joined the Chevrolet team
owned by Billy Ballew. Shane
Hmiel won a race driving for
Ballew last season.
Although Kerry competed in
Cup, Busch and Winston West
last year, he has never competed in the Truck Series. In fact,
until he tested recently at Talladega, he had never even driven a racing truck.
“I just think this is going to
be a great opportunity for me,”
Earnhardt said. “We’ve got
DEI committed to do the engines for us. Richie Wauters
(crew chief) is pretty smart
with this truck series and our
equipment is nice.
“They keep their stuff in top
shape and clean. Maybe we
can make it grow into something more than just a one
year or couple-year deal,
maybe do some Busch races
with this team or some other
team.”
Kerry will also compete in
the two Cup races at Talladega
driving a Chevrolet fielded by
Richard Childress.