DATE: Sunday, October 5, 1997               TAG: 9710050180

SECTION: SPORTS                  PAGE: C2   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BOB ZELLER

                                            LENGTH:   67 lines

NASCAR REPORT

Marlin and Sabates officially announce new pilot for No. 40

CONCORD, N.C. - Felix Sabates has seen the future, and the future is Sterling Marlin.

Sabates formally announced Saturday at Charlotte Motor Speedway that Marlin will drive the No. 40 Chevrolet Monte Carlo in the NASCAR Winston Cup series in 1998.

``Sterling is a winner,'' Sabates said. ``You know his record. More important, Sterling is a nice person. I want everybody to get along on our team, and I think that was the missing link.''

Said Marlin: ``In the back of my mind, I always thought I might drive for Felix one day. Felix and I have understood each other so far. I haven't seen him get mad yet. He hasn't thrown the Spanish on me yet.''

Sabates said Tony Glover will become manager of all three Sabco teams, but ``on race day, he's going to be working in Sterling's pit.''

``I'm really looking forward to getting back with Tony,'' Marlin said. ``Tony has put the team together, and they've done a good job under him.''

Lepage's Cup debut

Grand National regular Kevin Lepage will make his Winston Cup debut today in the UAW-GM 500 driving the No. 91 Chevrolet owned by Chesapeake's Joe Falk.

After failing to qualify for the New Hampshire race, Lepage and the team tested here and on Wednesday night qualified 12th - the best starting position in the team's history.

``I'm just glad Joe Falk and the whole LJ race team gave me a second opportunity,'' Lepage said.

Lepage said he was driving the Cup car like a Grand National car - into the corners hard. He found he needed to enter the corners less aggressively so he could get on the gas quicker coming off the corners.

``Our main goal is we need to do 500 miles on Sunday,'' he said. ``I'm kinda in an awkward position because I'm so far up in the field. Some of the guys may ruffle my feathers a little bit getting to the front. What I need to do is make sure I put myself in a position where I can get comfortable and start doing laps.''

RCA backs off

RCA has announced that it will ``take a lower profile in NASCAR racing sponsorship in 1998.''

The company hopes to return as a primary sponsor in 1999, a statement said. It said RCA plans to ``maintain involvement'' next year but did not elaborate.

New Busch sponsor

Kingsford charcoal announced that it will sponsor Robert Pressley in the ST Motorsports Chevrolet in the Grand National series in 1998 and 1999. The team will change numbers from 47 to 59.

Petty fastest in practice

The top 10 drivers in Saturday's final practice were Kyle Petty, Jeff Gordon, Bobby Hamilton, Bobby Labonte, Rusty Wallace, Bill Elliott, John Andretti, Dale Earnhardt, Joe Nemechek and Ernie Irvan.

Irvan, however, had an electrical fire in his car and his team unloaded a backup. NASCAR Winston Cup director Gary Nelson told the team it could not use a backup because the primary car was repairable. The crew then got busy removing parts from the backup to repair the primary car.

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