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Mark and the No. 8 U.S. Army team fought back from a pit-road speeding penalty and a mishap in
the pits to finish 18th in Sunday's Sprint Cup race at Kansas Speedway.
“It was just one of those days,” said Mark after the 400-mile event. “I just didn’t have a good
day out there. We had a good car, but I got caught speeding on pit road and then I overshot the
pit and that hurt us. The team gave me a much better car than the finish. I’ll take the
responsibility for what happened out there today. I just made too many mistakes.”Mark started the race on the outside pole for the sixth time in 2008. His Chevy Impala SS was tight early, but would loosen over the long run. Mark dropped back to eighth before the team pitted for the first time on Lap 50 of 267. The veteran ran all but a handful of laps inside the top 10, before getting busted for pit-road speeding on Lap 117. Due to the penalty, Mark restarted in 28th position. Despite overshooting the pits on Lap 130, Mark fought his way back inside the top 20 by Lap 156 where he would run the remainder of the race. “It was just really difficult once we got back there in all that traffic,” added Mark. “I’m just proud of everyone on this U.S. Army team. They continue to put me in good cars each week and it’s a lot of fun to drive them." Crew chief Tony Gibson was proud about how Mark and the team never gave up. "You can't be great every day," said Gibson. "But making the best of a bad day is what makes people great We never quit and came home with a decent result." The No. 8 Dale Earnhardt Inc. team remains 15th in the owner point standings. Mark will hand the No. 8 Chevy over to rookie co-driver Aric Almirola next week at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway. Mark returns to action in two weeks at Lowe’s Motor Speedway, Oct. 11 in Concord, N.C. |
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