when he was hired by Billy Hagan to drive the No. 44 Piedmont Airlines-sponsored Oldsmobile. He had four top-fives and finished 11th in points. The following season, he had seven finishes of eighth or better in the first ten races and finished tenth in the standings. In 1989, the team received sponsorship from Sunoco and switched to the number 94. He tied a career-best 13 top-ten finishes but dropped to 12th in the final standings. He left the team at the end of the 1990 season. During the 1990 season, he won his first career Busch Series race at Charlotte, driving the No. 48 Diamond Ridge-sponsored Chevrolet owned by Fred Turner. 1991–1997 Marlin signed to drive the No. 22 Maxwell House-sponsored Ford Thunderbird for Junior Johnson in 1991. He had a second-place finish at Daytona to start the season and won two poles at Talladega Superspeedway and the Firecracker 400, and had a total of 7 top fives and 16 top tens, finishing 7th in the standings. The next season, he had 6 top fives, 13 top tens and 5 poles, finishing 10th in the standings. Marlin departed to drive the No. 8 Raybestos-sponsored Ford for Stavola Brothers Racing. In 1993, he had just 1 top five and 8 top tens and fell to 15th in the standings. Marlin's first career win came in his 279th career start at the 1994 Daytona 500 driving for Morgan-McClure Motorsports in the No. 4 Kodak-sponsored Chevrolet, the most starts for a driver before his first win before Michael Waltrip's win at the 2001 Daytona 500. In 1994, he had 1 win, 5 top fives and 11 top tens, and rose slightly to 14th in the standings. He went on to win the 500 again in the following year, becoming only one of four drivers to win consecutive Daytona 500s. The other three men that have accomplished that feat were Richard Petty, Cale Yarborough and Denny Hamlin. He also became the only driver to have his first two career wins at the Daytona 500. Marlin won 2 more times during the 1995 season (at Darlington and Talladega) for a total of 3 wins, 9 top fives, 22 top tens, 472 laps led, an average finish of 9.84, and ranking a career best 3rd in the standings. In 1996, Marlin had 2 wins, 5 top fives, 10 top tens, and finished 8th in the standings.