Mark called it a "tough night" after posting a 16th-place finish in Saturday's Nextel Cup race
at Lowe's Motor Speedway.
The U.S. Army driver was in position for a possible top-10 result when the race went into overtime
with a green-white-checkered finish. Mark was running in 13th place for the final restart and
it appeared that his 01 Chevrolet had the speed to pick up a few more spots on the 1.5-mile oval.
"I had a good run on the No. 84 and it looked like we were going to get a good finish," explained
Mark. "But he (AJ Allmendinger) was able to close the door on me pretty quickly and I picked
up some damage to the fender. After that we just had to take it home the best we could."
"Basically we had about a 15th-place car," said Mark. "But no one can say we didn't battle right
to the end. Our U.S. Army pit crew hung in there and did another tremendous job. The Army
spirit of never giving up is very strong on this team."
The 01 Dale Earnhardt Inc. team is ranked 14th in owner points. Mark, who has missed 10 of the
31 Cup races due to a part-time schedule, is 25th in driver points.
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