The 2004 Coca-Cola 600

Mark and the Viagra® (sildenafil citrate) Racing team were one of the favorites Mark at Lowes Speedway

going into Sunday night’s Coca-Cola 600 and for the first 200 laps of the race they did everything they could to justify the hype. Mark was running in third and honing in on second place when his second ignition box malfunctioned on lap 200, forcing the team to bring the car down pit road and lose valuable time changing out the ignition box system. In the end, Mark lost several laps and was out of contention for the win.

"What can you say?” said Mark after the race. “I don't run my mouth much, but I feel like we backed up what I said and that feels good. I've waited a long time to have a car that good and I hope I don't have to wait that long again. I don't think I will with these guys. They're really, really good. I like these guys a lot. I believe we can have a really sweet summer, but we've had such horrendous luck I don't know what to expect.

"We killed one ignition box and switched to 'B' and then killed 'B'. They just went out. When I tried to restart it, it just smoked. The team did a good job working with the car to change the boxes, but by then it was too late.”

In what would prove to be a roller coaster ride of a race for the No. 6 team, Mark started the race 18th and wasted no time making his way through the field. Running some of the fastest times on the track, Mark broke into the top 10 on just the 23rd lap. By lap 40 Mark was running in sixth position and beading down on fifth place when he radioed to his crew that he had a tire going down.

Mark came in unexpectedly on lap 43 with his right front tire going down. The team rallied with a 15.07-second stop to take on four tires and fuel. Mark returned to the field one lap down and in 38th place. The veteran went to work and had moved up to 30th position when the field began to pit under green. Once the field had cycled through its stops, Mark had moved back up to fifth position.

Despite being off pit sequence and running on tires 20 laps older than the remainder of the field, Mark continued to run times as fast or faster than the leader, as he moved up to fourth place. The team came into pit on lap 106 for four times, fuel and an air pressure adjustment. A quick stop of 13.93-seconds by the Viagra® Team sent Mark back out in 23rd place.

The remainder of the field started to pit around lap 119, with Mark running in 18th place. On lap 122 while running in 14th place, Mark radioed his crew that the ignition box had failed and that he had switched to the backup. When the field cycled through its stops Mark was back inside the top-five. By lap 130 he was in fourth place. Three laps later Mark moved his Viagra? Ford into third place, where he ran for the next 56 laps, breaking away from fourth place, despite being on much older tires than the majority of the field.

The team was within five laps from its next stop when it caught a big break on lap 159 when the day’s first caution was called. The caution allowed the team to get back on the same cycle as the remainder of the field. A 15.57-second stop by the No. 6 team allowed Mark to return to the field in third place and in good shape as one of the fastest cars on the track.

Mark was getting set to pass the No. 38 car for second place when he again radioed the crew that he was having trouble with the ignition box. This time there was no backup and the team was forced to come into the pits and replace the ignition boxes, losing valuable time and several laps. The failure would put an end to Mark’s strong bid at his fifth win at Lowe’s Motor Speedway and his second Coca-Cola 600.

When Mark returned to the field the team was 17 laps down and in 39th place. He was able to make four of the laps up, while gaining three positions for the 36th-place finish.

“It was just a tough night,” added Mark. “We had the tire go down early, but we fought back and got ourselves in position to run for the win. We might not have been faster than the No. 48, but we were really fast and it’s pretty disappointing to go home with a 36th place finish.

“Still, you have to look at where the program is and the fact is that Pat (Tryson) and the guys have consistently given me good race cars to drive and if we keep doing that we’ll get this thing on the right track down the road. Today is not what we wanted, but all we can do is take the car back to the shop, get it ready for Dover and come out fighting again. We’ll do that and we’ll see what happens.”

The finish dropped Mark down to 15th place in the Nextel Cup point standings, 162 points outside of 10th place and 462 points behind first.

Mark and the team return to action next week in Dover where Mark has won three times on a track he considers one of his favorites.