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| Mark celebrates his fifth win in the last eight Busch Series races at Lowe's/Charlotte Motor Speedway, giving him a total of 38 for his career. No other driver in the history of the division has more. |
Mark held off Dale Earnhardt Jr. and
Matt Kenseth in the final stages of the CarQuest Auto Parts 300
to collect his fourth Busch Series victory of the season. The race
unfolded the so many other Busch Series races do for Mark. The
handling of his car wasn't exactly what he wanted it to be early
in the race, so he held on, raced when he absolutely had to and
cruised when he needed to. Like the mechanical bunny in the television
commercials, Mark just kept plugging along until it was time to pit
and make adjustments. And for Mark, more often than not, the strategy
works. It certainly did this time around.
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| It was the 38th win of Mark's Busch Series career, adding to his division record. The victory was also the sixth of his career at LMS and fifth in the last eight races at the 1.5 mile facility. Asked about his secret at LMS in the Busch Series, Mark gave a hint, but still held his cards close to the vest. |
| "Handling," Mark replied. "The car just has to handle good, and when it does, you can drive it hard. That's what you saw out of the 3 car(Earnhardt) and out of us today. We had a great race. They had us for part of the race, and at the end, I think we had the car to beat. |
| Handling was crucial in this year's edition of the CarQuest Auto Parts 300. Competitors faced the warmest and most humid conditions so far in 1999, which made for a slick racing surface. Handling - plus tire management - equaled victory for Mark. |
"I've never seen it slicker since we
have been running radials." Mark said. I think it used to get this slick
back in the '80's when we were running those notch-back cars. We
has a great race, though, today. The Goodyear tires worked well,
no problems out of 'em, no apparent inconsistancies. They did a
great job, worked real well on the Busch cars today. Mark insisted
he couldn't have beat Earnhardt without adjustments made on his
Rousch Racing Ford during a caution-flag pit stop 35 laps from the
end of the race.
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| "Well, 'Little E' was really hooked up today." Mark said. "He just drove a beautiful race. We couldn't handle him until that last pit stop. This team made the right adjustments and got me hooked up. I was a little bit loose and I kept waiting for it to come to in, and it never did. |
| "We made some slight adjustments and they didn't seem to help, so on the last stop, we got it going. I think our car was the quickest there at the end, and it was a good run for us. This team has done a great job for me all year. We weren't going to beat him under those conditions, with the set of tires and the setup that we had. He was really looking good, and we weren't strong enough to run with him. On the other hand, with just one pit stop, things can change." |
Elliott Sadler crashed in turn two on
lap 163, bringing out the sixth of eight cautions. Earnhardt was
in front of Mark as they headed down pit road two laps later, but
rolled out in second, just behind the Winston Cup veteran. "We were
a little loose on new tires." Earnhardt began, "We came in the pits
ahead of Mark on that last pit stop, so I asked 'em to take a pound
(of air pressure) out of the right rear (tire) expecting to come
out in front of Mark. We came out behind him.
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It took Mark 2 hours, 30 minutes and
47 seconds to complete the event at an average speed of 119.377 mph.
There were 12 lead changes among seven drivers, and eight caution flags
for a total of 41 laps. Mark has gone to the Busch Series post eight
times this year, and four times, he's ended the day in victory lane.
He's now got five top-five finishes and six top-10s. Twice - at Darlington
Raceway and Daytona Speedway - he's finished 39th due to accidents.
So basically, if Mark doesn't wreck, he wins. Anything else is failure
to the Arkansas native.
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