Marlin

Sterling Marlin is so far removed from picking up where he left off last year that, in an way, it's comforting to the driver from Tennessee.

Marlin was in fourth in the standings entering last season's 30th of 36 races. His resolve in the points race was so steadfast that three races earlier he had finished last in a race at Richmond, Va., and still maintained the lead -- for the 25th consecutive week.

And though he had finished low enough in those three races that heading into Talladega, Ala., he had dropped to fourth, the 1983 Rookie of the Year was still considered a top contender for his first title.

But before he ever started race No. 30 at Talladega, the driver of the No. 40 Dodge announced that he had to sit out the rest of the season because of a spinal injury.

"We'll rest up and get 'em next year, though," he said. "We'll have a team coming back that's been through a lot, but has been really great for the past two or three years. I think we'll be even better (in 2003)."

Just four races into the season, there's no telling whether Marlin's words will actually be proven correct. So far, however, they are so wrong that he's left searching for comfort in psychological games.

Namely, he figures he started out great and ended disappointed last season, so perhaps he'll get it backward in a good way this time.

"I'm not worried," he said. "We're really just getting started. We started out with a little bad luck, but the way to look at it is, maybe we've got the bad luck behind us early. I still think we're going to have a great season."

But after posting just one top-10 in his four races, his team manager is a bit concerned. Sure, Marlin hasn't finished out of the top-20 in any of the events yet, but he hasn't notched a top-five or even come close to putting on a winning performance.

Even his best finish, an eighth-place effort at Las Vegas -- a track where he won last season -- is remembered for a questionable move he pulled on the last lap where he sent Jimmie Johnson spinning and dropped the sophomore driver several spots in the finishing order while improving his position just one spot.

"We're not where we need to be right now with the 40 car," Tony Glove said. "A couple of guys were so good early on that we got lapped before that first yellow. We got the car a little better, but we weren't nowhere fast as we needed to be. We've got some work to do. We were no match for those guys up front by any means."

Marlin fans all over are screaming that their driver is running just to keep up when it comes to his car, though. They say his car, like every other Dodge, isn not equal to the other cars on the track -- namely the Chevrolet, which has performed well early on.

NASCAR's rebuttal is that the cars are as similar now as they've ever been. And the only differences aerodynamically lie in the design manufacturers have come up with to attempt to make their cars resemble their street-car namesakes. That's nobody's fault but Dodge, or whatever make has a gripe with fairness.

Glover isn't sure he's ready to get on board with that, but he's not ready to scream for a level playing field just yet.

After all, Marlin hasn't even finished as the top Dodge this season. In the season's first two races, he wasn't among the top-four finishing Intrepids.

"I'm sure NASCAR will look at it in time," Glove said of any make's aero advantage. "Until we can be the best Dodge week in and week out like we've been the past two years then we've got to go to work to make our program better and not worry about what the other folks are doing. We've just got to get our stuff better."

Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates employees from the engine shop to the fab shop to the over-the-wall crew are all working hard to do just that. And everyone, including Marlin, has got a little extra energy this week -- not only because they feel urgency, but also because they're headed to Darlington Raceway.

To them, it's the perfect place to get the season turned around.

Marlin has won the Carolina Dodge Dealers 400 twice in his career -- including last season. And in the fall race there last season, he started first after rain washed out qualifying and lined the field up by points and guided his silver-colored rig to a fourth-place finish.

Add to that the fact that Marlin's neck is fine, his spirits are up and his focus is sharp. Plus, he's been down before and come back with brilliance.

The back-to-back Daytona 500 winner in 1994 and '95 was kind of quiet in the late '90s. So when he showed up on the radar in 2001, finishing third in the points race, people called it a fluke. He went out in 2002 and nearly won the title -- the neck injury forever adding the question of what might have been in his brain.

Now that he's off to a shaky -- though not horrid -- start, Marlin's keeping the same resolve that helped him block out the negative energy around him and re-emerge as a contender.

"We got a long way to go," he said. "And I still think we've got a shot."

Rupen Fofaria covers NASCAR for The Raleigh News & Observer and is a regular contributor to ESPN.com. He can be reached at rfofaria@newsobserver.com.