One of the longest weekends in NASCAR history culminated in a frustrating ending for Mark and
the U.S. Army Race Team.
Running in the 16th position just prior to the half-way point of Tuesday's Nextel Cup race at
Michigan International Speedway, Mark’s 01 Army Chevrolet began to smoke heavily, bringing out
the third caution of the race.
Mark and the team were forced to take the car behind the wall to repair a broken rear seal
in the engine. The crew worked on the car for approximately one hour before Mark returned
to the track. But a few laps later, Mark's day came to an end on Lap 170 of 200 when
the engine let go. He finished 42nd.
“We had a pretty good car today and it was just starting to come back to us when we started
smoking,” said Mark. “We had a lot of power in the engine, but had a problem with a seal
somewhere. It was just an unfortunate incident."
In a race that was delayed two days due to rain, Mark started 10th based on Friday’s
qualifying effort. With the race conditions much different than they were for the final
practice on Saturday, Mark started the race tight. The team made adjustments to loosen
the car's handling on Lap 31.
With the car too loose in the corners, Mark fell back to 17th before the car’s handling
started to come around. He moved into the top 15 by Lap 73. But on Lap 88 the car started
to smoke, ending any hopes of another strong finish for the veteran driver.
“I do have to mention the effort of this U.S. Army Team today,” added Mark. “The stats won’t
show it and most people will never know how much those guys had to work and get the problem
fixed for me to get back out there. They never had a defeatist attitude -- just like our
soldiers.”
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