|
|
|
|
|
|
Going into Sunday’s Sprint Cup race, Mark knew he would need three things to be in contention
for the win -- a fast car, a strong crew and some luck. In the end, two out of three was not good enough as Mark and the U.S. Army team battled adversity, settling for a 31st-place finish in the season opener. 
On Lap 84 of 200, the No. 8 U.S. Army Chevrolet suffered a major setback when both left side
tires went flat after running over debris on the 2.5-mile tri-oval. The incident not only dropped
Mark back to 42nd place, he went a lap down, was out of the draft and was in serious position
of falling two laps behind."That was a blow because we really had a good car," said Mark. "Until the tires went down everything was going according to plan." A dry spell of cautions didn't help Mark's cause, but he eventually got back on the lead lap with the Lucky Dog free pass on Lap 162. As the 500-mile race was winding down, Mark was moving forward and ran as high as 17th. It appeared he was headed to a possible top-10 or better finish. "We battled back from almost dead last and were just getting into the thick of things before we got caught up in somebody else's mess," said Mark. As Mark was continuing his move forward adversity struck again with 10 laps remaining when his car got collected in an accident triggered by Dave Blaney. “Sometimes you just can’t overcome that kind of stuff,” explained Mark. “But the guys hung in there and we fought back, just like our soldiers do every day to protect our freedom. This U.S. Army Team really showed me a lot of grit today.” |
|
