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| The Budweiser Monte Carlo ran great all day for Dale Earnhardt Jr., well enough to win his first Winston Cup Race in his rookie year in the series. He has previously won at TMS in the Busch Series. |
Mark started the
MaxLife/Cummins Taurus 10th after posting a qualifying
speed of 190.349 mph on Friday afternoon. Mark was
not pleased with the handling of the car from the
very start of the race. It was loose going into the corners,
but pushed coming off. The team thought it might have been
due to starting on scuffed tires, so they used the first
caution on lap 18 to pit for sticker tires. Unfortunately,
that did not help the handling. Then the car was tight in
the middle of the corners and off Mark was forced to wait
until lap 85 to pit for adjustments again. Nothing the crew
did seemed to help the handling, and every change they made
did not affect the handling they way it was intended.Mark ran as high as fourth by lap 119 after a two-tire pit stop. He began to drop back since the car was still too tight. The Valvoline/Cummins team took wedge out of the car, and Martin said the car was excellent after the first few laps, but began to push again shortly. The team took more wedge out on the next stop, but then the car was too loose for Mark to compete with the leaders. The team pulled spring rubbers from the rear of the car, 
made more air pressure adjustments and moved the track bar,
but nothing seemed to help. Mark made the best of it and
avoided the track record setting 12 cautions of the day. He
fought every lap to bring home an 11th place finish, which
moved him back into second place in the Winston Cup point
standings, 84 points out of the lead."That race was very frustrating," Mark said. "We had a great car in practice on Saturday morning. I don’t know if it made any difference that happy hour was rained out, but I just couldn’t believe that we could never get the car right. I give the crew credit because they tried everything to make it better, but nothing worked the way we expected it to. It was a long day and we gave it everything we had." Next weekend the Winston Cup series heads to Martinsville Speedway for another action-packed short track race. |
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