The 2003 Auto Club 500

After battling all day, Mark and the No. 6 Viagra® (sildenafil citrate) Race team were fighting for their fourth top-five finish of the season, when Mark got tangled up with Jimmy The 6 Car

Johnson on the race’s final lap. Mark was running in sixth position and closing fast on fifth, when Johnson got into the wall and came down on Mark with just one lap remaining in the race. The accident sent Mark and his No. 6 Viagra? Ford Taurus spinning into the infield grass just in front of the front stretch and relegated the No. 6 team to a 17th place finish, after running inside the field’s top 10 for the last 120 laps of the race.

“That’s tough, really tough,” said Mark. “We just can’t seem to buy a break this year. We had a great car, just like we have for most of the season, but once again we just didn’t have any luck when we needed it.”

“The team did a great job in the pits today and they gave me a pretty fast car. We ran inside the top 10 for most of the day and it looked like we were going to have a good finish before we got in that accident. It’s disappointing, but there is nothing you can do about it now.”

The highlight of the day was the work of the Viagra?Racing Team in the pits. The team logged four straight impressive pit stops late in the race that helped move Mark as far up the field as fifth place.

Mark struggled with the car’s handling early on in the race, and with the car handling very “loose” Mark fell back to 35th position by lap 15. Still, Mark worked his way back up the field, and was running in 25th place when the day’s third caution was called on lap 39. The team used the caution to come into the pits and work on the fender and add a spring rubber to help aid the car’s handling. When Mark returned to the field, he was running in 34th place.

The adjustments paid off and Mark had worked his way all the way back up into 21st position when the field began to start green flag pitting on lap 87. The team came in for four tires and fuel and an excellent stop of 13.94 seconds, which moved the No. 6 Ford into 16th place once the field had cycled through its stops.

With the car handling well, Mark maneuvered through the field and was running in 11th place when the day’s fourth caution was issued on lap 130. The No. 6 team went to work again, taking four tires and fuel, while making an air pressure adjustment in 14.87 seconds. The quick work sent Mark back inside the top-10 for the first time of the day in seventh position when the field went green on lap 134. Mark would not run outside of the top-10 for the remainder of the day until the accident on the race’s final lap.

Mark was running in ninth place when caution no. five was called on lap 154. The team used the caution to come into the pits to re-adjust the air pressure and take four more tires and fuel. Another impressive stop of 13.50 seconds gained Mark four more positions to fifth place when the field went green.

Mark was still running in fifth when the team came into the pits on lap 203 for another green-flag stop. In yet another excellent stop, the team took four tires and fuel in 14.05 seconds and returned to the field in fourth place once all the cars had cycled through.

Two more cautions would occur by lap 218 and each time Mark had to battle with lapped traffic on the double file restart, dropping him to seventh place by lap 240. Mark moved up to sixth a few laps later and was battling for fifth, when he was caught up in Johnson’s wreck; forcing him to settle for the 17th place finish.

“Obviously we weren’t happy with the ending,” said crew chief Ben Leslie. “The team did a really great job in the pits and Mark was really good on the track. The guys had several key stops that really helped us move up the track. Despite what happened on the last lap, it was a great effort by the Viagra? Racing Team.”

Despite the late-race incident, Mark still moved forward one place to 14th in the Winston Cup Point standings. He is currently 67 points outside of 10th place. The team returns to action next week at Richmond for the team’s first night race of the season.