distance of first place,” said Mark. “And that means more to me than anyone
will ever know. I never wanted to ride around in the back and I always
want to compete when I race.“It took a lot of sweat and a lot of tears to build this No. 6 car into what it is today,” added Mark. “And to still be in contention that late in the season for a championship in our final year in the car, well I’m extremely proud of that.”
Mark and Jack Roush capped off a 19-year relationship with the No. 6 Ford in 2006, with Mark becoming one of only three drivers to earn a berth in the ‘Chase’ for the Nextel Cup in each of its first three seasons.
“I’ve been after this thing for a long time and this time I’ve had time to reflect on it all, knowing that it will probably be my last run at the Nextel Cup,” said Mark just after clinching his spot in the ‘Chase’ and in history with his fifth-place finish at Richmond in September. “This time I think I’m just going to approach this thing one race at a time and with the intention of having as much fun as I can have. I know that things will happen the way they do and all I can do is to keep giving 100 percent and we’ll see what happens, but either way, I’m going to enjoy my last go around and have some fun.”
Early on, Mark’s philosophy proved beneficial in the 10-race ‘playoff’ for the title. Mark started the ‘Chase’ in seventh place and used an 11th-place finish at Loudon to move to sixth. A gamble on fuel at Kansas paid huge dividends, with Mark finishing third and jumping all the way to third in the point standings. The following week, Mark and the No. 6 AAA team survived Talladega with an eighth-place finish and with almost half of the Chase races down, Mark moved into the fifth race of the Chase just 10 points out of first, as the circuit headed to Lowe’s Motor Speedway – Mark’s favorite track.
Sporting a lightning-fast Fusion, Mark took over the points lead mid-way though the Bank of America 500 and appeared poised to close out the first half of the Chase with the Nextel Cup point lead, a lead he had not held since 2002. However, the curtain would close too soon on Mark’s Cinderella story. Caught up in a vicious accident only a few moments later, Mark was lucky to escape Lowe’s uninjured, but the 30th-place finish dealt a severe blow to Mark’s championship hopes.
The next week would bring more bad luck, with Mark losing his primary car to a wreck in practice at Marksville. The team appeared to rebound with what would have been a solid run in the backup, before Mark sustained damage to the radiator late in the race after getting caught up in an accident and being forced to virtually cruise to a 24th-place finish.
The trend continued the following week at Atlanta, where Mark – who was closing in on another top-10 finish – was once again caught up in someone else’s accident, resulting in yet another torn up AAA Fusion and another early exit from the race. Mark left Atlanta in eighth place, with his chances of a title all but mathematically eliminated.
As the saying goes, when it rains it pours and when Tony Raines pulled down in front of Mark during the final practice session at Texas Motor Speedway, Mark had no where to go and for the fourth straight week the team lost a race car. The result was Mark having to limp through Sunday’s race with an unpracticed backup racecar. He would finish 22nd in the race.
The team did rebound with a sixth-place finish the next week at Phoenix, after an excellent call on a two-tire stop by crew chief Pat Tryson late in the race. With his once large fleet of Fords greatly diminished, the AAA team would close out the season the following week with an 18th-place run in the season finale at Homestead.
“For me it was one of the most fun years of my career,” said Mark. “We had a lot of ups and downs, but this time I was able to kind of take it all in and enjoy it more than maybe I had in the past. We had some really good race cars, especially early in the year, but we had some problems on pit road. Once we got all of that solved, the cars just weren’t as good towards the end.
“Still, everyone on this AAA team gave a 100 percent effort and I’m so proud to have worked with Pat Tryson and this team,” added Mark. “We were in this thing for 19 years and we went into the last race, just like we did the first, looking to run up front and win.
“To be able to make the Chase and run competitively for a championship was surely the highlight,” said Mark. “And I’d like to think that we gave them a run for it, but the luck there at the end was just awful. We were in good shape and then we had something like four or five wrecks in a row and there is just no recovering from that. Still, we gave it all we had and that’s what means the most to me.
“The response of the fans and everyone out there was tremendous this season and that means more to me than any trophy could ever mean. I’ve done this a long time and I can leave the No. 6 car knowing that we always gave our very best every time that we went out, from the first time to the very last time.
“The other thing that made the year so special was the opportunity to work with AAA on some really important issues, such as teen driver safety,” added Mark. “With a teenage son myself, those are really some important issues not for just me, but for all of us and it was a real honor and a great opportunity to get to work with AAA on those things.”
For the year, Mark finished the season with 23 top-15 finishes, 15 top 10’s and seven top fives. He made his 600th consecutive Nextel Cup start at Loudon in July, finishing fourth in the race.
With the conclusion of the 2006 season comes the conclusion of Mark’s tenure in the No. 6 car, a tenure that spans 19 years, 35 wins, 39 poles, 361 top-10 finishes and 230 top fives. Mark will move on to drive the No. 01 car for Ginn Racing, while rookie David Ragan will take over the helm of the No. 6 car. Ragan will be paired with legendary crew chief Jimmy Fennig, who makes his return to the No. 6 team. Fennig was instrumental in the growth of former Roush driver Kurt Busch and the two teamed for a Nextel Cup Championship in 2004.
