Cracker Barrel 500

Mark started the Cracker Barrel 500 in fourth place The Viagra car in the pits

after he posted a speed of 191.887 mph during Friday's qualifying. The Viagra® (sildenafil citrate) Taurus was a bit loose early in the race, so the crew added one round of wedge on lap 57 during a green flag pit stop.

Mark continued to fight the handling of the car and as it got tighter, Jeff Gordon (the leader) passed him. He was able to get his lap back when Gordon ran out of gas shortly after Mark had a 15.42-second pit stop on lap 141. He had another break when a caution came out on lap 160, which allowed him to stay out while the leaders pitted. Mark took the lead for lap 163, which gave him five bonus points before he pitted on lap 164.

He was 13th and on the lead lap when the race resumed, but the handling changed with every set of tires the team put on the car. The car was tight again, so the crew removed one round of wedge on lap 207.

Mark was still 13th and the car was getting better when bad luck struck the team. As Mark entered turn one on lap 231, a large cloud of smoke came from under the car. Mark radioed the team that the engine had blown and their day was over. He was credited with 41st place, which dropped him down to 25th in the Winston Cup point standings. Rookie Kevin Harvick went on to win the race driving for the late Dale Earnhardt.

"We were getting in position to run up front," Mark said. "Then we had a tire begin to equalize which set us back a bit. We were moving up again when the engine let go. We could have probably finished in the top-10, which would have moved us into the top-10 in points also. I'm disappointed with the day. All we can do is figure out what happened when we tear the motor apart at the shop on Monday and make sure it does not happen again. We have a lot of work to do, but I know this team can get it done"

"We had a disappointing day on Sunday, but I'm also pleased with how well we ran before we had problems. Just because we are 25th in points now, we won't be there for long. The points are still close enough that we can be in the top-10 with good runs this weekend at Darlington and next week at Bristol. Hopefully by the time we get to Texas we will be in the top-10 like this team deserves.

The Viagra car going in the pits

It has been quite a week here at home. Ever since the big feature about my son Matt ran in last Sunday's New York Times, there has been quite a lot of interest from the media. It is truly amazing that a publication as big as that would do a huge feature on my son racing quarter-midgets. A lot of big media people in the New York area read it and would like to do a feature of their own. We'll have to see how that works out.

Speaking of the quarter-midgets, we race at New Smyrna again tonight (Wednesday). Matt won his heat race last week, but then he got caught up in a wreck in his feature. He was pretty upset since he had quite a bit of damage to the car, but I worked in his shop helping the guys fix it so he could race again this week. He's really doing great and I couldn't be more proud of him.

I'm looking forward to Darlington this weekend. It should be a good race for us. We're taking a car that we've had a lot of success running over the years. It is only a two-day show since we practice and qualify on Saturday morning. Then we have happy hour after the Busch race and our race is Sunday. It is a nice treat for everyone on the team to get to stay home an extra day."