The 2003 Checker Auto Parts 500

The No. 6 Viagra® Racing team battled back from adversity on Sunday using excellent work in the pits and sound pit Mark Martin

strategy to post a 10th-place finish in the Checker Auto Parts 500.

“We finished 10th and that's about what we were today,” said Mark. “We had a crack at a top five if things would have gone our way, but I'm not complaining. I'm real proud of our team and proud of our car. It was more competitive today than we have been in a while.

“Ben had some great pit strategy and the team did a great job in the pits,” added Mark. “We were really going on that last long run. All of the cautions hurt us, but we still got a solid finish. The team really did a great job this weekend, from fixing the car on Friday to great work today.”

Mark made contact with the wall moments before the end of practice on Friday and the team had to work feverishly to repair extensive damage sustained to the right-side of the car. However the No. 6 team came through and Mark was able to post a 12th-place qualifying effort and despite the accident post some of the fastest times on the track in Saturday’s practice session.

The team announced on Sunday morning that the race would be the last for crew chief Ben Leslie. In a ‘swap’ move with the Wood Brothers, Leslie will become the crew chief for Ricky Rudd and the No. 21 car, while Pat Tryson, who has served as Rudd’s crew chief, will take Leslie’s place with the No. 6 team. Despite the distractions, Mark and the No. 6 team wasted no time going to work once the green flag dropped on Sunday.

Mark quickly broke into the field’s top 10 and was running in ninth place by lap 28. Mark had moved up to eighth place by lap 33 when the day’s first caution was issued. The team reeled off one of their best stops of the season, an excellent 13.85-second stop in which the team changed four tires and made air pressure adjustments. Several of the car’s in the field took only two tires and Mark returned in 12th place when the field went green.

The team reeled off stops of 14.74 and 14.70 seconds in its next two stops and Mark was running in 14th place when caution number five was issued on lap 208. The team made its move to the front on lap 213 taking right-side tires only under caution, in what would be the team’s last stop of the race. Mark returned to the field in fifth place when the race went green with just under 100 laps to go.

Mark quickly moved up to fourth and after another caution on lap 229, Mark found himself in third place when the race went green on lap 237. Battling cars on fresher tires, Mark dropped back to fourth place on lap 239, but was holding his own against the rest of the field. With the car better on long runs and struggling on restarts, the No. 6 team needed for the race to go green the rest of the way.

However, that would not prove to be the case, as the race would see four more cautions, the last coming on lap 299 with only 13 laps remaining and Mark running seventh. The car would again struggle on the restart, but Mark fought to the 10th-place finish. The finish was the team’s 10th top 10 of the season and its first since August.

“We had a good enough car to stay out like that,” said Mark. “The car was awesome on that last long run. If it would have gone green all the way, we would have had a top-five easily because nobody was coming at all, but those were pretty old tires, especially the lefts, and it just didn't take back off after the cautions and they just kept picking me off one by one. It was a good enough car to stay where I was at as long as the green stayed out.

“Still, it was a really great effort by this Viagra® Racing Team today.”