The 2002 Aaron's 499

Mark and the No. 6 Viagra® Racing team saw their day end Jeremy Mayfield (19) and Mark slide through the infield as the accident continues.

early after getting caught up in a multi-car wreck -that claimed 24 cars - on lap 164 of Sunday's Aaron's 499 at the Talladega Superspeedway.

While team owner Jack Roush, who was injured Friday afternoon in a plane crash, had his condition updated to serious, Mark Mark was busy moving the No. 6 Ford through heavy traffic on the track. Mark led the race on three separate occasions and was moving up the field once again, before the wreck forced the car from the race and onto a 37th place finish.

"We had a good car and a good team today, but you just can't drive that slow out there on that track and not have things like this happen," said Mark. Running the same car that he drove to a sixth-place finish at Daytona, Mark qualified 19th for Sunday's race and had the car running lap times at the front of the pack by the final practice on Saturday. After falling out of the draft early, Mark dropped to 23rd by the ninth lap, before mounting a run that would see the No. 6 Viagra® Ford Taurus in 15th place by lap 16.

Cars rapidly gain and lose position on the track at Mark at Talladega

Talladega and after falling back to 20th on lap 23, Mark quickly moved up the field once again, getting in line with the draft and breaking inside the top five ten laps later on lap 33, before falling back to 18th by lap 40 as the car began to tighten up.

Mark had moved up to 13th position, when the field began to start green flag pitting on lap 49. The No. 6 Viagra® Racing team came in for four tires and a rear-end adjustment on lap 52 and returned to the field in 20th place, once most of the cars had pitted by lap 55.

By lap 87, the No. 6 Ford had once again cracked the top 10 in ninth position, before breaking in to the top five on lap 89. Mark was running fourth when green-flag pitting started again on lap 105. Mark stayed out and led lap 106, earning five bonus points, before pitting to take four tires and make rear-end adjustments. The No. 6 returned to the field in second place (behind only Matt Kenseth, who had not yet pitted). The ensuing laps saw a special moment for Roush Racing, as Roush cars all ran in the top-four positions.

The day's first caution occurred just moments later, (debris on the track) and the Viagra® team, who was running in seventh position, opted to return to the pits and top off the gas. Mark returned to the field in eighth position on lap 119, before quickly working his way up the field and taking the lead on lap 125. Mark dropped back to third on the next lap, before once again regaining the lead on lap 128, where he led the three laps.

Mark at Talladega

The No. 8 car working with the No. 98 was able to pass Mark and the No. 6 Viagra® Ford quickly dropped out of the draft line, falling to as far back as 27th by lap 135. Hung out to dry with no draft partners, Mark diligently worked his way back up the field and broke back into the top-10 on lap 160, before getting caught up in the wreck on lap 164. All in all, 24 cars were involved in the accident.

The No. 6 Viagra® Racing team worked feverishly on the car on pit road and Mark was able to briefly return to the track. However, the damage to the car was just too heavy and the No. 6 team was forced to retire for the day and settle for the 37th-place finish.

"I just really didn't want to wreck today," added Mark. "But everyone was trying hard not to, but when you have cars out there that are made to go much faster than they are going and everyone is running so close, it's just bound to happen eventually."

Despite the finish, Mark remains in the top 10 of the Winston Cup point standings, sitting at ninth and trailing eighth place Tony Stewart by just a single point.

Mark and the No. 6 team travel to California next week for the NAPA Auto Parts 500.