Sponsorship woes

When I found out that the number 13 and 14 cars were unsponsored at New Hampshire, I was at a barn where I had been staying at for a week. One of the owner's is a Sterling fan, and he was telling me about qualifying. I asked him where he qualifyed and I thought THAT was bad enough (41st, if you don't remember), "But the worst part is he was in an all black car," That certaintly was the worst part.

The reason for this? Ginn felt that it would make it clearer to sponsors that they needed them. While this is true, it also made the team look bad, like the team nobody wanted. Why would anyone want to give $12 to that?

I don't see why Sterling and Joe can't find sponsors and guys outside of the top 35 can. At least Sterling and Joe are garunteed into the show every week. And if not for some bad luck they would both be way higher in the standings. Unfortunatly, not many big important company people WATCH NASCAR so they wouldn't realize that Sterling has had some good runs this year.



I'm mad at Waste Management for bailing out. I don't know how much they've decided to leave, hopefully not completley. But if you noticed last week the quarter panels on his car were bare. Normally, Ginn would just put the Ginn logo on it, but I guess again he wants to show that there's room.

Jay Frye said about a week and a half ago that they were coming close on a sponsorship deal for Sterling, but I haven't heard anything else on that since. Hopefully it didn't fall through. I wish the Panasonic thing had worked out, I REALLY liked that car.

I was mad about the whole situationa and I still kind of am, but really it's just kind of sad. Sterling wants to go out with a bang, but how is he supposed to do that if they can't find a sponsor? I just hope that he isn't kicked to the curb because of all of this. So if anyone knows somone that's really high up in a super rich company, then maybe you could pull a few strings?

TJ let go

As many of you probably know, Ginn has layed off quite a few employees latley, and I have just been informed that one of them was our good friend TJ. TJ was Sterling's spotter, and a damn good one at that. This year he kept our guy out of countless wrecks and helped to encourage Sterling. Not only did he tell Sterling when he was clear, but was never short on jokes and "good jobs" either. You could easily tell that Sterling trusted TJ and that they had a good relationship. I'm pretty upset with the decision to lay him off, because it was obvious to me that TJ was a great guy and a great spotter. He will be replaced by the spotter from the #4 Busch team, which got shut down (or "opperations suspended"). He better be damn good, because with the luck Sterling has, he needs a good spotter to help keep him out of those wrecks tend to come his way. Not that Sterling doesn't know how to keep himself out of trouble, but behind every great driver there's a great spotter.

TJ, you will be missed! Good luck with whatever you do in the future!

Post Wreck Report (Daytona)

Another frustrating week, once again we had a great car but no finish to show it. Starting the race from 29th was bad enough, I thought maybe that would be all the bad luck. Sterling missed a few wrecks and things were looking good. He was in the top ten and staying there. Sterling said that his car felt good wide open, but in traffic it was tight. Still he managed to get to the front. The pit stops were good, everything was going great. He was even getting on TV. But then he got the TV exposure for the wrong reason. The Marlin nation saw exactly what we had been dreading, but an oh too firmiliar site. Sterling was sideways after hitting the wall. The tire went down and ended our day. He would've been fine too, had he not hit Rudd, which caused him to go back into the wall. Slugger was going to try to get the car back out, but they eventually decided that it would be too dangerous, and so Sterling finished a very, very dissapointing 40th. This week it wasn't like, "well, maybe he would've gotten a top ten if he hadn't wrecked (or whatever)," No, this week he was going to get a top ten. And it sucks, and like Sterling said it's hard to swallow.

We didn't drop any in points though, thanks to Reed crashing. We actually passed Reed, but Gillilands good run left us in 28th.

I guess 07/07/07 isn't lucky for everyone :(

Could it be in the numbers this week?

I've been known to be pretty superstitious, although I've gotten a lot better about it. Still, I like to look for things in numbers, that might point to something. 07/07/07 could be a good date for Sterling, and here's why:

• It's the luckiest day of the century, and boy does he need some luck
  
• The last time he won a pole was for this race, which was on the same date (07/07/01)
  
• 7+7 is 14
  
• from weluvsterling on the SUB bored, "the pepsi is being run on ...07/07/07....sterling has won it 1 time...if he was to win it sat night it will be his 2nd win in the pepsi...2 x's 07 will be 14...his car #....dw won the 500 in his 17th try driving car #17...on the 17th of feb"
  
  

Let's hope that this logic works! It worked for DW, so it should work for Sterling, right?

I hate the rain!!!!

A breif period of rain stopped qualifying after JJ Yeley nearly spun out, however qualifying soon resumed as the rain passed. Everyone was optimistic that the session would get in. Unfortunatly, they were off by 14 cars. After all but 14 drivers had gotten their times in, the rain started and this time it didn't stop, so NASCAR decided to cancel qualifying and go by points for the race. That decision really sucks, because at the time Sterling was 9th fastest, and the second fastest of the non go-or-go-homers. The GOGHers are all in qualifying trim, and Sterling being in race trim means that he probably would've passed them pretty easily and gotten to the lead. But no, it just had to rain, and now Sterling will start 29th and Jeff Gordon will be on the pole. As bad as that sounds, I can't help but feel terrible for the Said heads. Boris was on the provisional pole at the time, and now he won't even race.

I think that NASCAR made a bad call here. Quaifying was almost over, instead of canceling it completely they should have waited until today to finish. It's an impound race anyway, so there's no pracitce to get in, and it's a night race so there's plenty of time. I hate it for the guys that actually would've qualifyed their way in but now have to go home because of rain. Mikey will have to sit out another race, even though he was most likley going to be in the show.

Part time in '08?

Several sources, including Sterling himself, have said that there is a strong possibility of Sterling cutting back to a part time schedule next year. Basically Sterling said that he doesn't want to stop racing completely, because he loves it, but the travel's getting old.

Jayski is reporting that they've heard that Sterling may go to Furniture Row Racing next year :0 I hope that doesn't happen because I'd hate to see him driving for such a bad team. Ginn is bad enough, but dropping down to a third teir team.....that would suck. I mean, with a part time schedule we don't get to see him in every race anyway, and then with FRR we'd probably only get to see him qualify. I know that Sterling can qualify his way in when he has to, he's proven that this year, but you can only do so much with 3rd rate equipment. Also, FRR get's their stuff from Ginn! Sterling all ready gets 2nd rate Ginn equipment, and that's bad enough. Imagine that crap he'd get at FRR!

It's Sterling's choice and I'll support his decision no matter where he goes, even if it's Micheal Waltrip Racing, but I hope that he stays with Ginn. It all depends on the sponsors though, so they'll have to wait and see how it shakes out. Right now, sponsors aren't looking good so let's hope for a strong run at Daytona so they notice him! If Sterling leaving Ginn means going to a 3rd teir team, then I'd much rather Sterling stay with Ginn.

There's also the number thing. This is from an article on NOL, "Frye said those plans included Smith in one full-time Nextel Cup car, either the No. 13 or No. 14."

So where does that put Sterling or Joe? Mark Martin is going to stay part time in the 01, so would Sterling share a ride with him? I doubt it, because I think they want on of their development drivers in that spot. So would Sterling get a new number and just give up the owner points he worked hard to earn to stay in the top 35 to Smith? That sounds familiar, doesn't it? (For those slow one, Joe Nemecheck ;)) What if Joe leaves? I haven't heard anything about that though, but I think it's possible. I'm kind of doubting that we'll see Sterling in the 14 car next year though, but believe me I want him in that car, but I guess we'll just have to see.

New Hampsire post race

Yea, sorry it's taken me so long to write this, I got kind of lazy.

So Sterling ended up a dissapointing 24th at New Hampshire. He started the race 41st but was able to steadily work his way through the field, up to 28th before he got put a lap down. Luckily just before Tony Raines was going to be put a lap down the caution came out and Sterling got the lucky dog. Sterling told Slugger that the car was jitterbuggin. After the pit stop Slugger told Sterling that there was a lot of build up in the right front, and to let off the throttle a little bit. However Sterling said that when he let off early "bounce, bounce, bounce," He restarted 28th and didn't get too far until the next caution. This time they took 2 tires which put Sterling restartin in 13th. Sterling complained, however, that it took about 10 laps for the car to get going. Also on that stop Sterling ran over something on pit road, I think it was an air hose from the 07 pit, but there was no damage to the car.



After the restart Sterling was doing pretty good, and had good lap times, although at first he fell back a couple spots. Slugger told him, "You're doing a helluva job, lap times are good," and throught the green lap period both Slugger and TJ were pretty encouraging, telling him that his lap times were good, etc. At this point the car was seemed like it was pretty good, because the lap times were so high.

On lap 194 they had a green flag pit stop where they took 4 tires and gas but no changes. Unfortunatly, they lost 4 seconds on that pit stop. When the caution came out Sterling said that it was taking long to get going. After the restart Slugger told Sterling that, "The car don't look nothing like it did earlier," Sterling response, "Tight tight tight," During this green flag period Sterling fell back a bit, and the car was really bouncing.


When the next caution came out the pit for 2 tires and picked up 7 spots. The car was still jitterbuggin but Slugger told Sterling to, "race like hell," They restarted 13th, and unfortunatly I can't remember if he fell back or not, but I think it was pretty much the same. But then the caution just had to come out. Slugger said, "That'll help us," but I don't know why he thought that when all day Sterling had been complaining about how the car was taking a while to get started. Then on the final restart he fell way back for two reasons. First off the car was taking forever to get started up again, like it had been all day. But also Sterling got "Pabloed," of course, when this happend I decided that I was going to watch TV for a bit and left raceview, so I didn't see what happend. Sterling also apparently said some...chocie words...about Juan Pablo, which I missed. Slugger told Sterling to pay the 42 back, but unfortunatly Sterling never got that far and finished 24th.
He's still 28th in the points, but only 3 points behind Reed Sorenson.

I'm back!!!

Yea, I was going to post everyday using my cell phone but do you realize how hard it is to type out the text messages? And it's kind of hard to write about stuff when you have no idea what's going on in the NASCAR world.

But I guess I didn't miss too much last weekend, I did listen to the first seven laps on the radio, which was of course till he blew an engine :(

Anyway, I wasn't the only Marlin fan around when I was gone!!!!! I was at a barn and they owner's husband is a Sterling fan. I was in her house standing in the living room and I see a #40 die cast, so I asked her about it and she said her husband is a Sterling fan! :) That was a pretty cool coincidence I thought. We had some opportunities to talk about NASCAR, and he told me today that Sterling had an all black car (but that's a different story), and where he qualified and stuff. I have never, ever met another Sterling fan outside of a race, although once I saw one at Wal-Mart, but they were in a car leaving. I dunno, I just thought that was kind of cool.

I have a lot of venting to do concerning the sponosorship issue. I'm also sad about Sterling almost for surely being part time next year (if you haven't heard, I'll explain later, and sorry for just dropping it like that, but we've all known for a while deep down). I'll get to that tommorrow, the truck race is on ;)

Qualifying

I missed it on TV because usually SPEED is about 5 mins behind, but yesterday it was on time. So I listend to it on the radio and watched PitCommand. The announcers said that it wasn't pretty, but he qualifyed 20th which is pretty good considering he was 31st in practice. No winner has ever come from further back than 13th though, but we might be able to squeeze a top ten out of this if he stays out of trouble. Too bad I won't be able to see it :(

Some things I failed to mention

So it seems that even with my detailed notes (yea, I take notes during the race) I missed a few things. It happens when you have to run downstairs to watch the race on TV but then back up stairs to watch Sterling.

One of the reasons he finished 20th was the pit cycle. He had to make a late pit stop and not everyone else did. I missed that not everyone else did because at that point I wasn't listening to the radio or watching TV. Also, when they tightened the car at the end it got super tight, instead of just kind of tight like they wanted.

Some bad news...

Really, it's not that bad. But I have to apologize, because next week I will not be able to write a post-race report. If I have any Sterling fan that reads this, then really that's probably why. So I urge you, my single reader that may or may not exist, to not abandon me! I'm going to be gone from the 23rd to the 30th without internet or TV access, so I won't be able to see what goes on with Sterling, or even see the race at all.

I DO NOT like to miss races, in fact this is the first race I've missed completley since I've started seriously following the sport. I won't even be able to watch the replay on Thursday! I'm trying to get it taped, but by the time I watch it everything will be old news.

I will be able to post my random NASCAR thoughts though via my cell phone, so you can still get your NASCAR fix, just no Sterling post race report.

But www.ginnracing.com provides one, not a great indepth LaMancha report...but it's something ;) Also, you can go to www.sterlingmarlinfans.com and look at the race post, where fellow Marlinites with TrackPass tell the rest what's going on.

So, I think you can manage. ;) But I apologize again, and if I do have someone who reads this every week (for the past 2 weeks I've done this) then I promise this isn't a normal happening. I HATE missing races, but I had no choice.

The Monday Report

You know, really all I can say about MIS is dissapointing. We had a good car, but the handling wasn't there, and you can't finish well with a car that's sideways. I think Slugger did the right thing by trying to tighten it up, even though it ended up to be the wrong thing. Maybe he could've tried something different after Sterling said it was worse after that, but what was he going to do, loosen it when it was sideways? Sterling drove his butt off I think trying to keep it from going sideways too much. He did the best with what he had, and was giving Slugger information.

So, dissapointing, but maybe next time the handling will be there and they'll be able to get a great finish :)

MIS post race

If only it had been this race that ended at lap 101, and not last week. Sterling got some TV time by being in the top 10 for a while. However, an ill-handling race car gave him a 20th place finish, putting him tied for 24th in points. Here's a rundown of what happend:

So he starts out pretty good, moving up to around 20th. The car was a little tight at that point. On lap 34 they pit and take four tires and adjust the car. They picked up a couple of spots and Sterling says the care is pretty free, and the car wasn't tightening up. What seemed at first to be no big deal ended up to only be the beggining of what would eventually give Sterling a 20th place finish. Under caution they tighten up the car and it's a good stop, he restarts 17th but falls back alittle before taking back the spots he lost. Lap 68ish there's a caution and Slugger elects to take 2 right tires. Everyone else takes four and that puts Sterling in 2nd for the restart.

This call probably is what saved Sterling from the wreck caused by Newman. I also think that it was a pretty good call, or at least it turned out pretty good. It got him much needed track position. After this restart though Sterling falls back to 6th. Not suprised because the car has been better on the long runs anyway. The car starts coming to him and he is able to maintain 6th until Denny Hamlin and Carl Edwards pass him on lap 107. (so you see, if it had been THIS race that was rain delayed, we would've finished 6th ;)) Sterling says that the car is balanced in 3&4 but 1&2 are acting weird.

Green flag pit stop on lap 108. This is the stop where everything changes, and things go from good to bad to worse. Slugger tightens the car, because Sterling says it's loose. They take 4 tires and a wedge adjustment. During the caution on lap 114 Sterling's complaining that the car is free, but they elect to stay out. Sterling though was really complaining about how free the car was, but Slugger said that they really have to stay out, and tells him to "Believe in it,"

On the restart he quickly falls back to 9th...then 10th...then 11th...14th...15th...yea, NOT a good restart. Slugger tells Sterling that he needs to suck it up. But Sterling's saying that it's almost sideways. But TJ reassures Sterling that the car will come to him. It seems like TJ is right for a while, Sterling picked up a couple of spots to 14th. But on lap 134 Slugger asks Sterling if it's coming to him and Sterling replies with, "No, no no!"

So on lap 149 they make a green flag pit stop and tighten it up. But Sterling complains that "It's still sideways," Slugger says that it seems the more they tighten it the worse it gets. :\

They went a lap down and were in conention for the lucky dog for a while, but no caution ever came out. On their last pit stop they took two tires and fuel, which is what put them down to 20th.

After the race Slugger said that he was mad at himself for tightening it. Apparently there was no indication that it was loose other than what Sterling was saying. The more they tightened it the worse it got. He was also mad that they didn't get that top ten that they should have gotten, "It just sucks," Yes Slugger, yes it does.