Marlin turns back Craven Mainer has his best NASCAR finish in rain-shortened race

BROOKLYN, Mich. – Sterling Marlin has been the best Dodge driver all season, so it was only fitting he gave the automaker it’s first Winston Cup victory in 24 years.

The two-time Daytona 500 winner passed Bill Elliott with 53 laps to go at Michigan International Speedway, and won when a heavy shower halted the scheduled 200-lap event Pepsi 400.

“We’ll take them,” said Marlin, who ironically last won in a race of the same name, at Daytona in July 1996.

Neil Bonnett got the last previous victory for Dodge in Ontario, Calif., in 1977. The automaker returned to Winston Cup racing this season after a 16-year absence.

Marlin beat Newburgh native Ricky Craven back to the finish line at lap 156 when the caution flew for rain, and the cars ran six laps under yellow before NASCAR called the race. An earlier shower at the halfway point had forced a 1-hour, 45-minute stoppage.

Craven finished a career-best second, with Elliott third. Matt Kenseth and Johnny Benson rounded out the top five.

“I kept looking in my mirror and I saw Ricky coming,” Marlin said. “It was raining and I was thinking, ‘Man, they’ve got to call it,’ because it was getting slick out there.’ ”

Marlin’s win – the seventh of his career – completed a sweep for car owner Chip Ganassi on Sunday. Ganassi driver Bruno Junqueira won the CART race in Elkhart Lake, Wis., earlier in the day.

Despite the long victory drought, Marlin remained confident in his ability.

“I never doubted myself,” he said. “I knew we could get the job done if we could get some stuff to do it with. I felt in my heart that I could still drive a race car as good as anybody.”

Ricky Rudd’s blown engine brought out the second caution, at lap 121, and all the leaders except Jeremy Mayfield pitted. Elliott changed two tires and came out behind Mayfield while Marlin chose to take four, putting him back in seventh.

Elliott passed Mayfield for the lead on lap 129 and pulled out to a 2-second advantage. But with the fresher tires, Marlin steadily worked his way through the field and closed quickly on Elliott.

He made two attempts to pass before finally pulling abreast of his fellow Dodge driver on the frontstretch on lap 147. Marlin took the lead in turn 1.

“The first time I tried to pass him, I didn’t catch him in the right place on the track,” Marlin said. “The last time I caught him, I got a good run up off turn 4 and just got on by.”

Craven took second from Elliott four laps later, and he was gaining on Marlin when the rain came.

“I think we were within five laps of getting there,” Craven said. “It would have been exciting. I would have liked to have had 10 more laps to race him.”

Rudd and Rusty Wallace appeared to have the fastest cars, but Rudd’s engine went sour just before the delay and Wallace’s did the same shortly after the race restarted.

“It always seems like you have problems when you’re running good,” Rudd said. “When you’re not having a good day, nothing seems to break.”

With those two out of the way, and with favorites Jeff Gordon and Dale Jarrett mired deep in traffic, it almost assured a surprise winner.

Many of the teams had crewmen posted at the NASCAR command post in the garage, watching the weather radar for the approaching rain. The pressure of an early finish provided some of the best racing of the day, with cars dicing two- and three-wide for position.

Mark Martin was conserving fuel and leading when the first rain shower forced NASCAR to stop the race at lap 100. He stayed out when most of the other leaders had to pit. When the rain briefly intensified, it looked like he might snap his 42-race losing streak.

But the rain stopped, and the track was quickly dried to set up the frantic finish.

Gordon finished eighth, while Jarrett had a flat left-rear tire with 55 laps left and dropped back to 37th. Gordon leads Rudd, who wound up 42nd in the field of 43, by 298 points in the series standings.

“You can’t control when you’re going to have problems and they’re going to have problems,” Gordon said. “You’ve just got to make sure that you keep coming home on the lead lap with as few problems as possible.”

NASCAR tried to start the race about 10 minutes early because of approaching rain but didn’t quite make it, with sprinkles hitting the track as the cars took the track for pace laps. The rain forced the field to make about 10 extra laps before the green flag waved.

Newburgh native Ricky Craven (32) passes Jeremy Mayfield during the Pepsi 400 Sunday. Craven, who was the pole sitter, finished second.