Most of the leaders had made pit stops under yellow on Lap 117 of the
race, leaving 83 trips around the 2.5-mile triangular Pocono Raceway to
complete the 500-mile distance.For almost every other team in the race, and every team in position to win, that meant at least two more pit stops. Mark's team, however, began plotting a way to make it on just one stop.
"We just backed it way down, saving gas and stretching it," said Mark, who came in for a stop on Lap 159 and felt confident he had enough fuel to go the distance after that. "We felt like it would be easy. I could have run half-throttle down the straightaways and really started saving some gas when it came down to it. I could have let people go that were pitting."
The gambit came to naught, however, when NASCAR threw a caution for debris on the track on Lap 169. While Mark said he didn't see anything on the track, eventual race winner Dale Jarrett said he did.
"It was debris," Jarrett said.
What kind of debris?
"NASCAR debris," Jarrett said.
The yellow, Jarrett said, was an answer to a prayer for him and for the other contenders who had figured that somebody, most likely Mark, would likely steal the win on fuel mileage had it not come out.
Mark, of course, had a different view.
"We just don't seem to ever win them on fuel mileage," he lamented. "A
lot of other people seem to, but the caution always seems to come out
when we're set to do it. I don't know, someday we will."When the yellow came out, Mark elected to come back to pit road along with everyone else on the lead lap, figuring that he'd need fresh tires to be competitive down the stretch.
"We chose to come get four tires, which was my choice," Mark said. "The question came up for two, and four didn't look like a very good idea the first five laps. I thought, 'I made a bad call,' but as it turned out it was the right call."
Mark was eighth on the restart after the final yellow, but moved steadily through traffic and made it back to second by the time the yellow and white flags flew on Lap 199.
"We had a pretty fast car at the end of the race, but it wasn't spectacular in the first half," Mark said. "Our team did a great job getting it better throughout the race. They really fought hard."
Mark picked up two spots in the points standings with his second-place finish, moving back up to fourth. He now trails leader Sterling Marlin by 212 points.
