Marlin, Gordon struggle in early going

SONOMA, Calif. -- Sterling Marlin stood in the Infineon Raceway garage, peering into the engine that gave way on the 30th lap of Sunday's Dodge/Save Mart 350 at Infineon Raceway.

Just as he exited his car, the No. 24 of Jeff Gordon came roaring into the garage -- right beside Marlin -- as his team attempted to make repairs to a damaged rear-end gear. Once repairs were made 12 minutes later, Gordon rejoined the race seven laps down.

Gordon had led 30 laps in the early going and seemed poised to break his losing streak, which now stands at 23 races.

Jimmie Johnson was poised to gain 80 points on Marlin with a mid-pack finish, but his rear-end gear also failed, sending him to a 35th-place finish. Johnson went from second to fourth in the Winston Cup standings.

Gordon, who finished 37th, led the most laps and collected 10 bonus points. He stayed third in the standings and actually gained 19 points on Marlin, who was 43rd.

Mark Martin had a trouble-free race and finished seventh to leap from fourth to second in the standings, just 62 points behind Marlin.

"We had a good first half," Marlin said. "There's 20 races to go -- we will get with it. The season kicks off again at Daytona. We are ready to go."

Marlin's problems began on lap 11, when he coasted onto pit road missing power steering and water pump belts, which might have come off when rocks thrown up from another car may have gotten between the belts and the pulleys. He returned to the track nine laps down, only to have his engine give up a short time later.

"It looked like the No. 30 car ran through a bunch of rocks," Marlin said. "The belt came off and I lost power steering. I tried driving it and I looked down and the water temperature was real hot. If you get the belts off it, it burns the motor up."

Sunday's difficulties completed a miserable weekend for Marlin, who hadn't finished lower than 21st this season.

Marlin nearly wrecked during qualifying and ended up starting the race 36th, his second-worst qualifying effort of 2002.