A Sterling Situation

August 21, 2007

Furniture Row Racing welcomes two-time Daytona 500 winner Sterling Marlin at Bristol.

Marlin will take the reigns of the #78 Cup car this weekend at one of his favorite tracks.

Crew Chief Joe Garone comments on the addition of Marlin.
“We’re very excited to have Sterling drive for us at Bristol. Sterling brings years of experience to a team who is in its infancy in the sport.

We are doing everything we can to give him the tools to have the best race possible. Sterling's knowledge will be invaluable to us as we continue to develop and build our team.”
Sterling replaces driver Scott Wimmer in the car this weekend.

Although the team did not qualify for the race at Michigan, Wimmer was able to help diagnose and verify some theories for the team.
Garone states, “Scott did a good job of trying to help us identify some of the problems we are trying to solve in our program. One of the fundamental issues is that we currently don’t have Chevrolets new R 07 engine, and are still running the old SB2 (which is 30hp down from the R07). Scott had tested and raced Richard Childress Racing’s R07 and he confirmed that he could feel the difference in the lack of HP in our car. This is not a reflection of the quality of work our engine department is doing, but a simple condition that we are working under. The four primary Chevrolet teams received the R07 parts before the non-contracted teams did.

This was a move to help develop the engine, and we are last on the order for Chevrolet teams. We expect to have the R07 engine at a test in mid September. Until that time, without having a qualifying specialist in the car at every track, we will continue to cut it close on making races. This is a part of why we chose Sterling for Bristol. His career average starting position at that track is 19th. You can expect us to select drivers based on those same qualifying criteria until we get our HP where it needs to be.”