Mike Marlar 30 years of Winning
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Mike Marlar’s first Major Event win was on June 29, 2003 during the Kentucky Klassic at McCoy Motors (Barren County) Speedway in Glasgow, KY. Pictured are track owner Billy McCoy, Mike Marlar and event promoter Chris Tilley
Mike Marlar 30 years of
Winning
By Chris Tilley
Part 2
One of the biggest blessings that came in Marlar’s life was meeting his future bride-to-be, Stacy, in the summer of 2005. The two dated for nearly five years before marrying in 2010. The Ohio native moved to Tennessee and the duo immediately became a “package deal” as Marlar would go on to say. “We started dating while she was in her last year of college and was getting her engineering degree. It’s been a really great partnership and I owe her a lot.”
Marlar had the opportunity to drive the Stephens Motorsports # 34 entry at the end of the 2006 season with owners Owen Stephens Jr. and Mary Lou of Flemingsburg, Ky. “The ‘34’ car came at a point in my life where it was a turning point for me. I was having success, winning some races and running good but I still didn’t have a team that could go out and travel and when I got hooked up to drive for ‘Jr.’ Stephens we did the deal at the end of 2006, went to a few races, we didn’t win but we ran top-five. We kind of had a good plan but then Mr. Stephens passed away.” Owen Stephens Jr. passed away after a heart attack on October 26, 2006 just as a plan for 2007 between him Marlar came about. “We had a plan to go racing. He was retiring, he owned a trucking company, but was going to keep enough trucks running that would support racing. He had this plan and I was going to be the driver and when he passed away, I just assumed all of that was gone.”
Marlar’s plans came back to fruition when he received a phone call from the late Stephens’ wife, Mary Lou. “She called me sometime after the funeral, maybe a month or so afterwards and said it was kind of still his (Owen’s) dream and she wanted to see it through at least for a year. We went into that 2007 season knowing it was pretty much a one-year-deal, we had a purpose behind knowing what we were doing, so we went out that year and won like fifteen races, we ran the Summer Nationals and finished fifth in the points. It was kind of a break-out year for me because I got some exposure. 2004 was a break-out year for people knowing I could win big races but I was in a lull for a couple of years running some regional races and in ’07 Mary Lou (Stephens) and Jr. gave me that opportunity to go race Summer Nationals and that was a huge turn for me. That kind of set me up going forward,” Marlar recalled. Marlar won three Summer Nationals Series events that summer in the Midwest plus several victories with the Battle of the Bluegrass DirtCar Series, Northern Allstars Late Model Series and the Southern Regional Racing Series. Marlar even competed in New Zealand while winning “down under” that season.
In 2012, Marlar teamed up with Bryson Motorsports for two full seasons and even tackled the Schaeffer’s Southern Nationals for the first time. Marlar, visiting tracks he had never run before, finished a close second in the points, only 44 points behind eventual champion Chris Madden. Marlar had two
wins on the mini-tour where he competed in ten races over a thirteen-day span. “That was a really fun deal. Norman (Bryson) lived in Atlanta (Georgia) and could travel to those events in the south and it just kind of naturally worked at the time to do that. It really helped get me some momentum for the rest of the season.” Marlar left the Southern Nationals and headed north the very next weekend for the World of Outlaws-sanctioned USA Nationals where he finished third in the main event.
In 2013, Marlar hooked up with Ronnie Delk of Jamestown, Tenn. and the team had tremendous success. Marlar’s Delk Equipment-sponsored race car was a major part of his career. Marlar gave special thanks to Delk for their ten-year partnership. “He took my career to another level and I’m thankful for him and his continued friendship.”
Before the start of the 2018 season, Marlar and car owner Ronnie Delk had both decided they wanted to run a national tour. The most suitable option for the team was the World of Outlaws Late Model Series. During his pursuit of the series title, Marlar picked up five series victories coming at Gaffney, S.C., Ransomville, N.Y., Deer Creek, M.N., River Cities, S.D. and Port Royal, P.A. Marlar won the series title by 28 markers over Brandon Sheppard. Marlar battled Sheppard, Chris Madden, Devin Moran and Rick Eckert for the coveted title that went down to the wire at The Dirt Track at Charlotte in North Carolina during the World Finals.
In 2019, following the World of Outlaws Late Model Series national championship, the town of Winfield, Tenn. honored Marlar with signs located at the city limits on both ends of US Highway 27 for his accomplishment.
On August 1, 2019, Marlar had the opportunity of a lifetime to go drive a NASCAR Truck at Eldora Speedway in Rossburg, Ohio during the Eldora Dirt Derby featuring the NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series. “Tom and Rocky Smith that own Smithbilt Homes in Knoxville (Tennessee) they have some other businesses and Brucebilt (Performance Parts) they also own an engine company that leases engines to NASCAR teams. I’m friends with them and they told me about the opportunity to drive for Reaume Brothers Motorsports (the #33 Truck) and said they’d support it so I have to give them all of the credit for the actual opportunity. That’s kind of how the ball got rolling on it. Marlar went on to finish fifth in the qualifying heat race at Eldora and rallied to a fourth-place finish in the main event.
“Once we got the process going there was a lot of stuff to do with that, licenses, physical tests, concussion tests and stuff like that. “What initiated that was Tom and Rocky Smith knew a team that maybe needed some help. They obviously wanted a driver with some dirt experience for Eldora. My buddies Tom and Rocky, they were actually leasing that team engines so we worked a deal where they would help the team with the engines if I could drive the truck.”
On the way to Eldora that race week, Marlar received a phone call that would put things in perspective. “Kenny Wallace called me on my way up there and he was confident that I would do good at it, he told me not to underestimate the power of NASCAR and how big that is and if you do good in this you’ll get more recognition that any race you’ve ever won in dirt racing and he was right.” The name recognition Marlar received at Eldora was huge for him and his career. “We actually had a shot of winning the race and if the cautions
would have played out a little better for us, we could have won the whole deal. I’m glad Kenny (Wallace) helped me kind of keep it in perspective and not underestimate the power of it.”
“As far as driving the trucks and cars go, they’re more like racing a street stock than a Late Model, just imagine a street stock with a Late Model engine basically is what you got, it’s a whole lot of power and very limited handling abilities, that was the feel you had as far as the driving side of it but as far as the fans, NASCAR is a far-reaching deal.”
Mike Marlar – Thirty Years of Winning will continue in next weeks edition, September 19, 2024.
Mike Marlar’s first Major Event win was on June 29, 2003 during the Kentucky Klassic at McCoy Motors (Barren County) Speedway in Glasgow, KY. Pictured are track owner Billy McCoy, Mike Marlar and event promoter Chris Tilley
