Mike Marlar: Thirty Years of Winning

Story by Chris Tilley

It was a sweltering hot August day in 1994 when a shaggy-haired teenager from Scott County, Tenn. strapped into a race car for the first time. After spending a lot of his childhood in the bleachers watching his idols, including his father race, an aspiring second-generation racer wanted to take a shot at racing.

The perfect storm was developing right before Mike Marlar’s eyes and he didn’t even know it.

Accompanying Marlar in the building of his first race car was childhood friend, distant cousin and neighbor Derrick Strunk. The duo worked all summer to put together what they thought would be a winning car. With help from Billy Todd building the powerplant for the race car, the reality of winning his first race was almost in Marlar’s grasp. Thanks to race promoter Billy Teegarden, the track, on his first race, was slow and slick and as Marlar called it an “ice skating rink”. The track surface would set Marlar up for success in his first night out.

Little did Marlar know, the first “Road Hog” win coming on August 13, 1994 at Lake Cumberland Raceway just outside of Burnside, Ky. would be the first of many to come.

The night Marlar won his first feature event at the local track was the same night Dale Atwood, longtime Marlar idol, was claiming victories in the Late Model and Bomber divisions. Mike’s father, David, also competed at the track located just forty minutes north of their hometown of Winfield, Tenn. The elder Marlar then competed in the Bomber division and on Mike’s second night out two weeks later, he ran seventh in the Road Hog Feature while his father took the checkered flag in the Bomber feature.

Marlar credited Atwood, Joey Daniel and Tom Curtsinger as racers he looked up to. “I studied those guys, they were winning at the local race tracks and not tearing up stuff, I wanted to be like those guys.” Following in his father’s footsteps to winning on the national stage was only a dream in the sixteen-year-old’s mind before that night. “I have to give Billy (Teegarden) credit too. “He gave me some really good advice early on in my career, he was a really good guy and wanted to keep local racing affordable. He kept the race track smooth and the rules package kept the racing good back in the day where guys on a budget could win.”

After the progression from the Road Hog to one season in the Bomber division, Marlar took a stint driving the Open Wheel Modifieds. With drivers competing for UMP (United Midwestern Promoters) national and regional points, most tracks within his region ran the governed rules where drivers could race and accumulate points plus racing against some of the best in the nation didn’t hurt polishing Marlar’s skills.

Marlar and friend Jimmy Owens, a four-time National Champion, chased Bob Memmer’s UMP points weekly in 2002 traveling all across UMP country in search of that elusive title and the $100,000 that went with it. Not only was Marlar’s points chasing honing his skills for the future, the group of drivers from this area including Victor Lee, two-time UMP National Champion Danny Yanders and many more were putting on some of the greatest shows for the race fans in the region.

“We went to Bardstown, Ky. (Bluegrass Speedway) for a big Modified race one night. They had over 80 Modifieds there. I didn’t even make the show. There were a few 57-numbered cars there. I knew I had to change the car number. So, I went with the # 157 after that,” said Marlar. “I wanted to know where I would be in the lineup and make sure we didn’t get left off the lineup,” Marlar said laughingly.

“Points racing was different back in the day. When we were chasing UMP Modified points, if an event rained out close to you, you had a lot of options to catch another race within a few hours and still run the same type of car and be able to still get points,” stated Marlar. “Points racing is a lot different now. When you have to travel 5-700 miles to a race and it rains out, you kind of lose the wind out of your sails,” said Marlar again.

Open Wheel Modified drivers have been overheard saying throughout the years that the modifieds are harder to drive than the dirt Late Models. The transition from the Modifieds seemed flawless for Marlar as he was slowly solidifying his place early on in such a competitive sport.

In 2003, Marlar went Late Model racing with the STARS Battle of the Bluegrass DirtCar Series. In route to his series championship and rookie of the year title, Marlar claimed five victories along the way coming at Richmond (Ky.) Raceway twice, Mountain Motor Speedway (Isom, Ky.), Scenic Raceway in Marlar’s hometown and Ponderosa Speedway (Junction City, Ky.). Marlar had a 500-point win advantage for the series title over Timmy Yeager, Aaron Hatton, Jesse Lay and Scott James. “In 2003, we wanted to build a team and get our feet under us.” With the help of Wayne Bowen and legendary racer and chassis builder C.J. Rayburn, Marlar’s plans for having the equipment and trailer to travel up and down the road racing regionally became a reality.

In addition to the Battle of the Bluegrass accolades in 2003, Marlar won a Northern Allstars Late Model Series event in Burnside, Ky. as well as the prestigious Kentucky Klassic at Barren County Speedway in Glasgow, Ky. Ironically, the first major event win in a dirt late model came the same night the writer of this story promoted his first-ever race.

Marlar’s winning ways continued during the 2004 campaign as he claimed payday in Carl Short’s Hillbilly 100 at Tyler County Speedway in Middlebourne, W.V. That win was worth $25,000 as he drove a C.J. Rayburn Race Car, one of only three Rayburn manufactured race cars in the field at Tyler County. The engine in the car was a steel-block, which had a lot less power than the open competition engines most drivers had. Rayburn knew that the steel block engine would have a weight advantage on the field. “At some point in the feature event while leading, I hit a piece of lead on the race track and in victory lane, the front straightaway was flooded with oil. The lead had gone through the oil pan and the only thing keeping oil was the vacuum of the engine,” stated Marlar on his first crown jewel event win.

In prepping for the Hillbilly 100, Marlar made the trip south to Atomic Speedway located just outside of Oak Ridge, Tenn. for a World of Outlaws Late Model Series race and ran seventh in the main event. Marlar knew that Atomic wasn’t the best “Rayburn” race track but could help him in events to come. That top-ten finish propelled him into victory lane just a few nights later in the Mountaineer State. Marlar went on to win the Hillbilly 100 again in 2012, this time at another West Virginia oval, I-77 Speedway.

2004 was a breakout year for Marlar. A $20,004 victory at Magnolia Motor Speedway in Columbus, Miss. the first weekend of October was setting up Marlar to end the season with huge success. Two weeks later at Bluegrass Speedway for the Dirt Track World Championship, Marlar would win his heat race of the 93-car field on hand and now be in contention to win the $60,000 prize put up by race promoters Carl Short and David Ferrell.

In what became known as the ‘oil gate conspiracy’ at Bluegrass Speedway, Marlar remembered, “I was a prime candidate to win that deal, it (the track) had rubbered and some of the drivers were mad because the track rubbered and I was on the pole. That’s when they (other competitors) all poured oil on the track and we all went in there and crashed on the start.” Marlar finished 23rd in the main event after destroying a race car during that melee. “I was just driving around the racetrack and saw that the track looked wet but most of the time before the feature, everybody fills their gas tanks up and the extra fuel comes out of the overflow and falls out on the track a little bit. It’s not really slick when you hit it, it’ll dry up about as fast as it hits the ground, so we’re going around the track. I saw liquid on the track but I thought it was overflow from somebody’s gas tank. What I didn’t know, a bunch of drivers took quarts of oil and poured them out of their cars out on the racetrack so I went down in turn one leading this thing and destroyed the car,” Marlar recalled. “They definitely altered the event.”

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.”

Marlar drove for MBM Motorsports in September 2019 on the pavement at Richmond (Va.) Raceway for a NASCAR Xfinity Series event. This wasn’t Marlar’s first go around on the blacktop. “I had drove an asphalt Late Model just a couple of times, some one-off stuff, kind of experimenting. I drove one the week before I went out there (to Richmond) and finished second in the race. The Richmond deal, it was short-lived, it was a lot of fun and I really enjoyed it but I got spun out on the first or second lap and didn’t get to finish the race. That was kind of a bummer,” Marlar said with a laugh.

Marlar drove again for MBM Motorsports at Bristol Motor (Tenn.) Speedway in the Food City Dirt Race in March of 2021, this time for NASCAR’s top tier series. In preliminary weekend action, he drove the NASCAR Truck for Hill Motorsports in preparation for the Sunday main event. “When you move from Truck to Xfinity to Cup racing it’s definitely equivalent to regional racing to national racing for us in dirt racing,” as Marlar compared the one to another. “I never really felt a lot of pressure. It was kind of a win-win for me, nobody really expecting anything, I wasn’t in a winning car or anything, it was kind of all to gain. I had a blast doing it. NASCAR really treated me good. I didn’t have much experience. They trusted my judgement and experience level through all of the dirt racing I’ve done so NASCAR was awesome to me about letting me do all of that.” Marlar credited the Smith’s again for the opportunity to take that leap into the NASCAR pool of racing. “Tom and Rocky Smith were really key players in all of those events so I owe them guys the world to get to retire someday saying I got to go do some of that, I was pretty fortunate to have done some of that,” said Marlar.

This season, Marlar and his new Skyline Motorsports team are tackling the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series in search of the title. Sitting inside of the top-ten in series points, Marlar’s work isn’t over just yet.

To this day, Marlar has racked up twenty victories with the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series, seventeen victories with the World of Outlaws Case Construction Late Model Series along with sitting in the twelfth spot on both all-time winners’ lists. Marlar also has one victory on the Castrol Flo Racing Night in America tour. Marlar also holds records by winning the 2012 Blue Gray 100 at Cherokee Speedway, John Bradshaw Memorial at Ponderosa Speedway, Gopher State 50, three-time winner of the Clash at The Mag, three-time Knoxville Nationals winner, Hall of Fame Classic at Brownstown Speedway, four-time Paul “Butterball” Wooldridge Memorial at Richmond Raceway, Cotton Pickin’ 100 at Magnolia Motor Speedway, the Tennessee Tipoff Classic winner at Smoky Mountain Speedway, 2018 Wild West Shootout Champion and Marlar was a former Indiana Speedweek Champion in 2006.

In all walks of Marlar’s life, the credit gets placed where it’s due. Marlar gives the majority of credit to his racing success to his crew members Josh Davis, who’s been with Marlar for eighteen years and Jerry Sprouse known affectionately as “Donk” who’s also been with Marlar going on ten years. “These guys were critical in my career and I cannot thank them enough.” Marlar also thanked longtime crew member Cody Smith who’s been with the team for over ten years. The Estes Family of Steve, Chris and Chip were ‘very crucial” according to Marlar. “They were like family. They were good to me in my early years of racing and provided the first engines I ran in my car,” stated a grateful Marlar.

Going forward, Marlar has no plans for retirement in the near future. “When I won the World of Outlaws Championship in 2018 at age 40, I realized I didn’t want to retire. I’m glad I didn’t because of the TV streaming and everything that’s made the sport so much better over the last few years. I really don’t want to quit racing, I want to stay in the grind like I’m doing now and try to win these Late Model races all I can and hopefully win some of these crown jewels.” Beyond dirt racing, Marlar said he’d be open to racing at the NASCAR ranks again. “I’ve had some NASCAR goals to go drive, and I realize at my age I’m not going to break into the NASCAR world but also, I want to go drive at some mile-and-a-half tracks and stuff like that. If my dirt racing ever slows down, I’m going to try to put my focus on driving some bigger NASCAR tracks in the Xfinity level or something like that,” stated Marlar. “The Cup Series car with the new generation car has gotten so expensive that without a huge sponsor you wouldn’t be able to do it but maybe we can run some Trucks or Xfinity races on some intermediate tracks.”

The elusive ‘World 100’ victory still haunts Marlar’s racing resume after a podium finish in 2017, a runner-up finish in 2021 plus making the event twelve times in 2003. “There are some crown jewels that got away from me and the World 100 was one of them. I was so close (in 2021) I could taste it. I’ve won prelims, done everything but been at the right position at the checkered flag. It would be cool to win something like that.”

Marlar does have a bucket list item he wants to do before retiring, he said with a laugh. “Some people want to go to Alaska, I want to go to drive at Kansas, an intermediate track and have that experience. But all joking aside, I kind of took off for a few months a while back and realized that life wasn’t going to be near as fun without racing and I’m going to do it as long as I can.”

Marlar talked about how competitive the sport of dirt Late Model racing is right now. “It’s really gotten the most competitive I’ve ever seen it and it’s also the most technical I’ve ever seen it. It’s harder for sure but the challenge is fun also so I’m really enjoying it right now more than I probably ever have,” as Marlar summed things up.

In August of 2024, Marlar will be celebrating thirty years of racing. His father still competes at the local dirt tracks racing a Hobby Stock car while his brothers Skylar and Camaron race dirt late models. All four Marlar competitors are still winning including Mike’s nephews Maverick and McCoy at the go-cart level. “I might be the old guy over there in the Street Stock in thirty years if I stay healthy so we’ll see.”

That’s definitely a Marlar family tradition thirty plus years in the making.