Fairgrounds paved racing road for Marlin family tree

NASCAR prides itself on its family connections. But there may not be another bond in the sport as strong as the one between the Marlin family and the Fairgrounds Speedway in Nashville. From almost the moment the track opened in 1958, the Marlins have made their presence known at the .625-mile paved, banked oval.

Coo Coo Marlin

Nashville Cup stats

Year	Start	Finish	Status
1966	8	8	running
1967	13	17	overheating
1969	7	7	running
1970	6	6	running
1971	22	25	crash
1972	3	26	crash
1973	6	6	running
1973	4	3	running
1974	16	14	running
1974	7	28	engine
1975	11	3	running
1975	6	26	crash
1976	19	8	running
1977	15	8	running
1977	22	11	running
1978	8	22	engine
Averages	10.8	13.3

The track opened in the summer of 1958, and hosted its inaugural Cup race a couple of months later. A standing-room-only crowd of nearly 14,000 watched the field of 32 take the green, with pole-sitter Rex White leading until he crashed on Lap 118. Joe Weatherly assumed the lead for the final 82 laps, the race finishing under caution, for his first career victory and the $1,850 winner's purse.

Clifton "Coo Coo" Marlin made the weekly haul from Columbia -- sometimes with infant son Sterling in tow -- and took home the track championship in 1959, then added another in 1963. When the track switched from modifieds to late models, Marlin never missed a beat, becoming the first driver to score back-to-back track titles, beginning in 1965.

At 34, Marlin made his Cup debut at his home track in Henley Gray's No. 97 Ford. While Richard Petty went on to lead all 400 laps, Marlin made a nice accounting of himself, running strongly all afternoon and finishing eighth, 25 laps off the pace. However, there was no shame in losing to the King at Nashville. Petty won a total of nine races there, including five in a six-race stretch during the mid-'60s.

Not surprisingly, some of Marlin's most successful Cup runs came at Nashville, although he never led a lap in 16 starts. He was third in the 1973 Nashville 420, behind Buddy Baker and Petty. And he wound up third again in the 1975 Music City USA 420, trailing another Nashville track champion, Darrell Waltrip, and Benny Parsons. Waltrip won four consecutive races at Nashville from 1981 to 1983, and visited Victory Lane eight times.

It also shouldn't come as a surprise to know that Sterling's Cup debut would also come at Nashville. The 19-year-old filled in for his injured father in the No. 14 Chevrolet in the 1976 Music City USA 420, but was sidelined early in the race with a broken oil pump, finishing 30th. He would go on to win three consecutive track championships, beginning in 1980, something that would help land a full-time Cup ride in 1983.

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.