The 2005 Chevy American Revolution 400

Mark and the Viagra® (sildenafil citrate) Racing Team secured their spot in the Nextel Cup top 10 and a place in the 10-race Chevy R&R 400 2005 Richmond

‘playoff’ for the Nextel Cup last week at California and went into Saturday night’s race at Richmond with the pressure off for a week. However, that was not to say the night would be easy. A flat tire on the right rear of Mark’s Ford Taurus would cause Mark to lose two laps and drop to last place in 43rd position by the 56th lap of the race. Mark would spend the rest of the night fighting for every position and he was forced to drive his way back onto the lead lap.

"The car was pretty special,” said Mark. “We did get one lucky dog, but we would have never gotten it if we didn't make a lap up on the race track against the 97 and all those guys. I'm pretty proud of the performance here tonight. I'm glad that we had this tonight. Maybe we won't have the flat tire next week. I'm real proud of the performance. I thought the car was pretty strong, especially on the long runs and we didn't make too many people mad.

“The racer in you doesn't like the idea of finishing 41st, and then it got to 30th, and then it got to 23rd. But, heck, there's nothing wrong with 23rd based on what we had, but we wanted more and we could have got more if we would have had more time.”

In a weekend that saw Mark clinch his record 12th International Race of Champions title, win his record extending 13th IROC race and capture his record-tying 28th Busch Series Pole, Mark started fourth in Saturday night’s Cup race based on Friday’s strong qualifying effort. The car started out really tight on the run and Mark fell back to seventh place by the time the team pitted under the night’s first caution on lap 33. However as Mark returned to the track it appeared there was a problem with his No. 6 Ford and he radioed the team on lap 50 to let them know he felt he had a tire going down.

With a right-rear tire going down, the team had to come down pit road under green on lap 56 to take four fresh tires. When it all shook out Mark was running in last place in 43rd and he was two laps down. If the Viagra® Team was to have a good finish Mark would be forced to fight his way back from two laps. Driving to the front of the field Mark passed race leader Kevin Harvick on lap 180 and proceeded to pull away from Harvick and second place Kurt Busch. When the day’s fifth caution was issued on lap 195, Mark was running well in front of Harvick and thus gained back the first of the two laps he lost. He was running one lap down and in 38th position when the field went back to green-flag racing.

Mark would spend the next several laps gaining valuable positions on the track while fighting to get into position for the “Lucky Dog” award. He passed former Roush teammate Jeff Burton on lap 227 to move in position for the free pass on lap 227, but the race leader Busch continued to lap cars on the track. Having moved all the way up to 24th place, Mark finally got the ‘lucky dog’ on lap 327 and he returned to the field in 23rd place and on the lead lap when the race returned to green on lap 329.

Robbie Gordon, who started in front of Mark, saw his car stall and Mark lost valuable ground on the cars in front of him. He used the next several laps to ‘reel’ the field back in and he just narrowly avoided a multi-car accident on lap 355. Mark found himself in 17th place when the race went green on lap 359. By lap 369 he had moved into 13th place, where he would eventually finish the race. The car would become tight again by the end, but Mark had b attled back from last place to 13th, having passed virtually every car on the track in the process. Without the mishap with the tire, Mark would have almost certainly been in the mix for the checkered flag. Busch went on to win the race, followed by Roush drivers Matt Kenseth and Greg Biffle as Roush Racing put all five of its cars in the 10 car, 10-race Chase for the Championship that will begin next week at Loudon.

“I’m very proud of this team and this effort,” said Mark. “I think we passed 100 cars out there tonight and it sure wasn’t easy. We got one lucky dog, but we sure had to pass a lot of cars to get there and some really good cars at that. We knew we had to drive back to get one of the laps, before we would even be able to fight for that lucky dog. It was a good night for the No. 6 team and a great night for Roush Racing. Now we’ll shift our focus to Loudon and the Chase and going for that Championship.”