The 2002 Carolina Dodge Dealers 400

A heavy cloud cover loomed large over the Darlington Speedway all morning, The 6 is on fire

threatening to postpone Sunday's running of the North Carolina Dodge Dealers 400. But, in the end of was the threat of the uncontrollable nature of racing that put an end to the No. 6 Viagra® (sildenafil citrate) racing team's bid for a third straight top-10 finish.

Mark, who made his 499th career Winston Cup start on Sunday, had worked the No. 6 Viagra® Ford Taurus up the field and was running in seventh place when race leader Tony Stewart got tangled up with Buckshot Jones on lap 226. The contact sent Stewart into the wall and spinning back across the track, resulting in an accident that would involve 11 cars, including the No. 6. With heavy damage to the front end of the car, the No. 6 team was forced to take the car behind the wall to repair the radiator and remove part of the mangled frame. When Mark returned to the track on lap 239, he was 11 laps down, and out of contention in the race.

"That's just bad luck - something that you can't control that set us back," said Mark after the race. "Still, our race team did a great job of recovering.

"The car was hurt really bad and they got it back out quick," added Mark. "Those are the kind of things that you have to do to stay in contention (for the point's race). Unfortunately we got involved in the wreck, but that was something that was not of our doing, although we got caught up in it."

The 6 is on fire

With several cars being forced to start the race in the back of the field, after changing engines, Mark started the race 25th, despite qualifying 31st on Friday. By lap 29, Mark had worked his way into the field's top 20. By the 64th lap, Mark had the No. 6 Viagra® Ford running in 15th place.

Mark was running in 11th place when the field began green-flag pit stops on lap 193, but the race's fourth caution of the day came out just before Mark was coming into the pits. Mark stayed out and led his first lap of the season on lap 198, earning five bonus points. After a 14.60-second pit stop to take four tires and fuel, Mark returned to the field in third place when the race went green on lap 211.

Dealing with heavy lapped traffic, Mark quickly dropped back to seventh place, but the No. 6 Ford Taurus was picking up speed and gaining on the leaders when the Mark got caught up in the wreck on lap 226. Stewart's initial contact with Jones sent him into the wall, spiraling back across the track where he was hit from the side by the car of Jimmy Spencer. Several cars were then caught up in the accident and by the time Mark came around turn two, avoiding contact was impossible as the track was completely blocked by cars that had been caught up in the accident.

The No. 6 team worked frantically on the car, replacing the radiator and removing most of the car's front end, in order to allow Mark to return to the track and maintain as many positions as possible. Mark returned to the race in 28th position, and was able to drive the badly damaged car around the track for the last 54 laps of the race; taking home the 29th place finish.

The car was not particularly fast off the truck on Friday and ran lap times consistently in the middle of the pack. The No. 6 crew worked with the car's setup all weekend and by race time on Sunday, the car was running strong. Running in 14th place, the team made only a slight wedge adjustment, added four fresh tires and took fuel on the first pit stop after caution came out on lap 90.

The Darlington Wreck

Running in 13th place, Mark radioed that he needed the car to be looser. After the second caution came out on lap 133, the No. 6 team made a track bar adjustment, took four more tires and fuel, but lost three positions down to 16th when the field went green on lap 138. Mark worked his way back up to 11th, before taking over the first place spot on the caution on lap 197.

"The car was good," said Mark. "We had a lot better car than I thought going in. I think we had a top-five car out there today."

"The team did a great job today," said crew chief Ben Leslie. "We had a very legit top-10 car out there, but unfortunately we got caught up in the wreck. That's racing and you just have to move on. We were able to go back out and finish the race and that's important."

Sterling Marlin went on to win the race.

Despite the finish, Mark remains in the top-10 of the point standings at ninth. Mark and the No. 6 Viagra® Racing team, return to action next week in Bristol for the Food City 500. The race will mark Mark's 500th career Winston Cup start and 443 straight Cup start.