Team Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates Car/Make No. 40/Dodge Sponsor Coors Light Crew Chief Lee McCall
STATS	2003	CAREER
Rank	18	3*
Wins	0	10
Top 5	0	79
Top 10	11	203
DNFs	8	118
Top Finish	6	1
*Indicates best career points finish

2003 recap
The good: It's hard to find many positives for a team that struggled almost the entire season, with no wins or top-five performances. But by season's end, things started coming together, with Marlin putting together a pair of 10th-place finishes in the last two races, and top-15 finishes in four of the last five events.

The bad: The team's performance was all over the board in 2003, managing to put together strong back-to-back finishes just three times during the entire 36-race season. Unfortunately, the norm was inconsistency in what was, for the most part, a week-to-week up and down season. The worst streak was between race No. 19 in Loudon, N.H., and race No. 32 in Martinsville, Va., with Marlin accumulating nine finishes of 22nd or worst (with seven of those finishes being between 31st and dead last) in the 14 events.

Key stat: After earning a combined four wins and 20 top-five finishes in 2001 and 2002, Marlin was unable to earn even one top-five finish -- let alone failing to reach Victory Lane -- in 2003.

2004 outlook
What needs to be done: 2004 could be the most pivotal year in Marlin's long Cup career. If he struggles again like he did in 2003, he could be out of a job -- and potentially forced into retirement -- by season's end. Marlin will turn 47 in June and is desperate to repeat the kind of performance he had for the first 29 races of 2002 -- including leading the points for 25 of the first 26 races -- before his season was cut short due to a crash-related injuries.

Key change: After suffering neck injuries at Kansas in September 2002, Marlin appeared to be tentative and cautious at the start of 2003. While he claimed he had no fear and was not hesitant about being involved in a wreck again, it's not a stretch to think that maybe subconsciously, Marlin wasn't as willing to be aggressive and take chances like he did in 2002, when he was No.1 for 25 of the first 26 weeks of the season. The end results this past season would certainly seem to indicate such.

Guarantee: Marlin will be out of a ride by the end of the season if he and the team don't make a marked comeback in performance and ranking in the standings. Team owner Chip Ganassi is willing to stick with situations that are going nowhere for only so long before a change becomes inevitable. Just ask Jimmy Spencer.

Prediction: If Marlin gets off to a slow start like the way he did in 2003, it'll be extremely tough for him to get back into the championship chase. To his credit in 2003, he managed to come back to rank as high as ninth in the standings after his slow start, only to struggle and drop to his eventual 18th-place final ranking. He needs to start fast and strong and not look back, much as he did in 2002.

Did you know: Marlin hopes that 23-year-old son Steadman will step up to Nextel Cup racing in the next few seasons and potentially replace him behind the wheel. Steadman has slowly been building his racing resume the last few years with occasional starts on the ARCA, ASA, Craftsman Trucks and Busch series.

Your take
Will 2004 be a make-or-break year for Sterling Marlin? If he struggles like he did last season, will he be gone from Chip Ganassi Racing? Could such an occurrence potentially be the end of Marlin's Cup career? Here are your thoughts on Marlin's prospects for 2004.