The 2004 Auto Club 500

In a wild finish that saw several cars run short of fuel late in the race, Mark and the Viagra? (sildenafil citrate) The Man

Racing Team brought home an 11th-place finish in the Auto Club 500 at the California Speedway. The finish moved Mark up two spots to 13th in the Nextel Cup point standings.

“We had a really awesome car until lap 150,” said Martin. “I mean early on it looked like we had a car that could win this race, and then something either went wrong or the track went away from us. Up until that point we had a top-five car for sure and we aren’t really sure what happened.

“But it was a great effort by this Viagra® Team,” added Martin. “We ran out of gas on the last lap or we would have been top-10, but so did a bunch of other guys. All in all, it was a good run for us and a great team effort. The last two runs just weren’t as good and that hurt us.”

Mark car was indeed strong early, but wavered during the last two runs of the day. The No 6 Viagra® Ford was running in 13th place when a wild and wooly end saw several cars either run out of gas late or pit for fuel in front of Martin. That activity moved Mark all the way into ninth place, before his car came up just short on fuel itself coming out of turn two. Mark lost two of the positions gained and coasted across the line for the 11th place finish.

Mark started the race 26th, but wasted no time moving through the field. He broke into the top 20 on the eighth lap of the race and was running 17th when the day’s first caution was issued on lap 23. The team came in for four tires and fuel, and a quick 14.096-second stop sent Mark back out in 14th place when the field went green.

Mark moved into the field’s top 10 on lap 50, just seconds before the day’s second caution. The team again came in for four tires and fuel, posting another stellar stop of 13.92-second stop that moved Mark up into eighth place. Caution was again called a few laps later and Mark was running second when the field went green on lap 62.

The car started to struggle on restarts and Mark quickly dropped back to 14th position by lap 69. However, the veteran rebounded and quickly started to move his way back through the field, breaking back into the top 10 by lap 77. Mark was running in eighth place when the day’s fourth caution was issued on lap 90. With the car’s handling starting to become loose Mark came down pit road for a wedge adjustment, fuel and four tires. The team posted its best stop of the day, a 13.91-second stop that moved Mark into seventh place.

Mark and the No. 12 car of Ryan Newman battled for seventh place for the next 32 laps, before caution was issued again on lap 139. The car was starting to become really loose and the team came into the pits to re-adjust the track bar, make an air pressure adjustment and take four tires and fuel.

Mark pitted under green on lap 199 to take on four tires, fuel and make The Car

another adjustment to the track bar. Once the field had cycled through its green-flag stops, Mark was running in 13th place, and having extreme trouble controlling the loose-handling nature of the car. Still, Mark was able to conserve fuel, securing the solid finish, while assuring the team finished the race running and on the lead lap.

"Actually, this was a stellar effort by this team,” said Martin. “These guys are coming, man. I think we have a solid shot at getting in that top 10 at the 26, if we can keep this up and build a little momentum, we can get there soon, too.”

"It's really three solid efforts in a row for this team,” said crew chief Pat Tryson. “We didn't get to finish at Martinsville, but we had a really good car. We had a really good car today, especially early and we had a really good car last week at Talladega.

“We thought we might have a shot to win today,” added Tryson. “For sure a top-five car, and then it seemed like the last two runs just went away a little bit, whether the track changed or something happened to the car, I'm not sure. But it was a real good car. The Viagra® Ford was good all day and just came a little bit short on the gas, otherwise we would've been eighth or ninth, but we'll take 11th and move on to the next race.

“We just have to keep working at it each week. If we can get our qualifying straightened out we’ll be in really good shape. We just have to keep getting better.”

The circuit takes Mother’s Day weekend off, before returning to action a week later in Richmond for the first Saturday night race of the season.