Mark and the Viagra® Racing Team ran to a solid
seventh-place finish in
the Auto Club 500 at California Speedway on Sunday afternoon. With the
finish the team starts the 2004 campaign with back-to-back top-10 finishes
and the run moved Mark up to third place in the Nextel Cup point
standings; Mark’s highest place in the standings since 2002.
“It was a solid run and a good effort by the team,” said Mark after the
race. “To be honest we had a little better car than that – a top five car
at least, but we just weren’t in the right place there at the end. Still
it’s a good finish and a good effort by this Viagra® (sildenafil citrate)
Team. We’ll build on that and come back and see what we can do at Las
Vegas in two weeks.”
Mark started the race 18th, but wasted little time moving up the field.
He would end up running his Viagra® Ford inside the top 10 for virtually
the entire race. He led four laps, earning five bonus points. Mark was
one of five Roush cars to lead on the day.
Mark opted to stay out after the day’s final caution on lap 218, which
put him running in third with 32 laps to go behind Roush teammates Greg
Biffle and Kurt Busch. Biffle and Busch were able to pull away, but on
the older tires Mark eventually gave way to a couple of cars on fresh
tires and had to settle for the seventh place finish. Biffle went on to
win the race, with Busch finishing third.
The finish culminated a strong weekend for Mark that saw the veteran win
his record extending 46th career Busch Series race on Saturday. The team
will take off next weekend before returning to action in two weeks at
Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Mark currently trails first place by only 39
points in the standings.
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