Fairgrounds paved racing road for Marlin family tree (cont'd)

Unlike his father, who is arguably the best driver never to win a points-paying race in NASCAR's premier series -- although he won a Daytona 500 qualifier -- Sterling broke the family's jinx in style by winning back-to-back Daytona 500s in 1994 and 1995. The most recent of his 10 Cup victories came in the 2002 spring race at Darlington.

Sterling Marlin

Nashville Cup stats

Year	Start	Finish	Status
1976	30	29	oil pump
1978	7	25	brakes
1979	14	15	lug bolt
1980	17	7	running
1981	26	26	engine
1983	13	11	running
1983	18	15	running
1984	27	18	running
1984	19	30	crash
Averages	19.0	19.6

The Fairgrounds hosted its final Cup race in July of 1984, with Geoffrey Bodine edging Waltrip by a car-length in front of an announced crowd of 24,000. Sterling Marlin finished in 30th and last place after an early-race crash. In nine Nashville starts, he cracked the top 10 only once, that coming as a seventh-place finish for D.K. Ulrich in 1980.

There are five active drivers who can lay claim to having raced Cup cars at Nashville. In addition to Marlin and Bodine, Bill Elliott, Terry Labonte and Mark Martin made starts before the track was removed from the schedule.

The fairgrounds continued to host weekly racing, with track champions such as Bobby Hamilton, Jeff Green, Mike Alexander and Chad Chaffin finding their way up NASCAR's racing ladder. And the Busch and Craftsman Truck series continued to make yearly visits to the track until Nashville Superspeedway was built following the 2000 season.

Just like his father and grandfather, 19-year-old Steadman Marlin made his NASCAR debut at Nashville, finishing 30th in the Busch Series BellSouth Mobility 320.

After a series of ownership and name changes, the fairgrounds track was nearly shuttered for good at the end of last season. However, a new ownership group headed by president Danny Denson and former owner Boyd Adams plans to run a full weekly schedule, beginning with the season opener on April 19. It's the latest, and hopefully most successful, effort to keep weekly racing alive and well in Nashville.

And to no one's surprise, the Marlin family should be well-represented. Sterling is expected to run a handful of late model races. Steadman is planning a full late model campaign. And Sutherlin Marlin, Sterling's 19-year-old daughter, is hoping to make her racing debut in the track's Supertrucks division.

The opinions expressed are solely those of the writer.