Trouble in Turn2

A brief history of the #40 car. Once upon a time there was a driver named Sterling Marlin. He was hired to drive a racecar full time for Chip Ganassi/Felix Sabates Racing (This was before they changed their name to Chip Ganassi/Felix Sabates Mostly Riding Around). And he drove quite well. He won 2 races in 2001 and 2002. He finished 3rd in the points in ‘01 and was even leading the point standings for most of ‘02. He drove the #40 Coors Light car, which at the time was the organization’s flagship team. Unfortunately his 2002 was ended early by a wreck at Kansas.

The years went by and while Marlin was not quite the same, he still was a solid driver, holding his own at most tracks and running quite well at others. Despite his serious injury, he was still a top 20 driver and managed to keep the #40 car there as well.

One day in 2005 Felix Sabates came along and asked Marlin to stop driving the #40 Cup car. He explained that Coors Light didn’t believe old people drank beer anymore. Since Sterling was old, he could no longer identify with this bourgeoisie of beer drinkers. A fresh, young driver named Daivd Stremme would be the one that the public would look to when thirsty. Sabates also offered Marlin the chance to “hang out”, run some Busch races (note: at that time old people still drank Busch beer) and collect a six-figure check. Marlin was so blown away by Sabates’ offer that he joined MB2 sports and drove fulltime in the Cup series in 2006 and 2007 (based on reports he made much more than six figures).

So Marlin moved on, away from the #40 car that had reaped so much success for himself and Ganassi. Meanwhile Stremme and Ganassi struggled. They fell outside the top 35, and it took Stremme 40 races to score a top ten.

After 2007, Coors Light decided that no matter how young or cool their driver was, it was hard to peddle beer while finishing 25th. Then this year was the final blow. IRL star Dario Franchitti came in and struggled more than Stremme. The #40 car’s windows were boarded up and cobwebs will soon decorate the rest of the car. And if you listen carefully you can hear the faint sound of laughter, belonging of course to Marlin.

Other Notes.

• Aric Almirola will drive the #8 car for DEI next year. Almirola is definitely talented and, depending on Martin Truex’s 2009 status, becomes DEI’s #1 or #2 driver. He’s certainly more talented than Regan Smith and Paul Menard. What I can’t figure out is why Almirola hasn’t been entered into any Nationwide races this year? Even if the cost is too much for DEI to bear, there has to be another Nationwide team they could farm him out to for seat time. That would be like the Yankees telling Joba Chamberlain, “We think you will be our #1 starting pitcher in 2009. To prepare for this high profile role, we will have you sporadically start 10 times this year. The rest of the time we’d like you to pitch batting practice and have bullpen sessions.”

  NASCAR will surely tout it as a victory for diversity, but I prefer to look at it as a good young driver who has paid his dues in the lower ranks including the Truck series that earned his chance. Whether that chance was accelerated by the Drive for Diversity program, I don’t fully know.

• Speaking of DEI, NASCAR impounded the #1 car of Martin Truex Jr. Since it’s a new DEI car, it came with all the latest DEI technology. Technology like a radar for where 17th place is on the track, an in-car #3 diecast retail store, and a gas pedal that wouldn’t go all the way to the floor. Reports that Truex wanted to drive one of Haas-CNC or Penske’s backup cars are completely false as well.

• I saw Baby Mama last weekend at the cheap theater. I’m a big fan of Amy Poehler and for three dollars it was defintely worth watching. If you are a fan of 30 Rock, you should enjoy this movie too. Tina Fey plays essentially her same role as Liz Lemon on 30 Rock: mostly serious, having to clean up others’ mistakes but also free to stray into comedy as well. That allowed Poehler , who I think is one of the funniest female actors around, to shine as the white trash surrogate. If you’re looking for a night to mentally unplug, it’s a good choice.