Texas: Sterling Marlin preview

Marlin's Aim is to Continue in Right Direction

FORT WORTH, Texas (April 10, 2007)--A strong run at Martinsville Speedway during the Nextel Cup Series' most recent event has the No. 14 Ginn Racing team holding its head a little higher entering this weekend's Samsung 500 at Texas Motor Speedway.

Despite the 21st-place finish Marlin was credit with following the April 1 race, the Panasonic crew was excited about the team's performance and hopes to continue in that direction as they head West this weekend.

"We had a great race car at Martinsville, but got spun out early in the race," said Marlin. "Otherwise, we would've had a top-10 finish. The Panasonic Chevrolet was that good. It was a disappointing result, but a great step in the right direction."

The finish was Marlin's best since the season opening Daytona 500, where he crossed the line in 17th place.

"Having a good run and a fast race car always boosts team morale," offered crew chief Slugger Labbe. "Everyone was pretty mad that we didn't get the result we should have because someone else spun us out. But regardless, it was a good day for the team."

Entering Sunday's 334-lap, 501-mile event, Marlin says the main goal for his Panasonic team is to be good early.

"We need to run well off the truck so that our focus can be on fine tuning our Chevrolet during practice," said Marlin. "If we can begin the weekend fast then we can work on gettinga good starting spot for the race and how to stay up front when the green flag waves."

The Nextel Cup drivers will also be piloting the traditional bodied race cars at Texas, after two weeks of running the new Car of Tomorrow (COT) bodies.

"I'm glad to get back in a race car I'm used to," offered Marlin. "I guess I'm coming around to those new COTs, but I still think the old cars look a whole lot better. We had a pretty good run in a COT last week in Martinsville. But I'm relying on the originals to take us to the front this week."

Sunday's event will be broadcast live on FOX, beginning with a prerace show at 1:30 p.m. ET.

-credit: gr