The 2006 DirecTV 500

On a day where almost everything seemed to go Martinsville 04/2006

wrong early, Mark and the No. 6 AAA Racing Team kept fighting to the end, refusing to give up and overcoming a pair of early accidents to rebound for a 13th place finish. Mark spent much of the day fighting to get back onto the race’s lead lap. The team was able to accomplish that feat with just 45 laps to go in the race. Mark would move on to gain five more positions. The AAA Ford Fusion looked worse for wear at the day’s end, but Mark’s resolve was as strong as ever, as he moved up to second in the Nextel Cup point standings.

“We ran hard, we fought back and we never gave up,” said Mark after the race. “It looked like giving up wouldn’t have been all bad at one time, but nobody on this team did. We fought back almost to a top 10. We were good all day. We had a tough break in qualifying and an extra tough break at the start of the race.

“That put us so far behind that we had to play catch up all day, but we had a car. That’s as good of a car as I’ve had here, so I have no complaints about our car at all. We had different brake issues and had to run awfully hard. I never had a chance to let her breathe, but we survived the whole day.”

On a day that saw 16 cautions, Mark got involved in the action early getting caught up in the day’s first caution on just the second lap of the race. The No. 8 car of Dale Earnhardt Jr. collided with Mark’s No. 6, forcing Mark into the wall and causing a great deal of cosmetic damage to Mark’s car. However, the car was structurally intact and Mark returned to the race in 36th position after green flag racing resumed on lap eight.

Mark, who started the race 30th after an early draw in qualifying on Friday, moved his Fusion back to 30 th position by lap 36. He was able to advance to as far as 26 th position by lap 65. However with the long green-flag run, Mark was overtaken by the leader Tony Stewart on lap 86, dropping the No. 6 car off the lead lap for the first time of the season. Mark and the team would spend much of the remainder of the day fighting to get back on the lead lap.

Mark spent several laps fighting for the lucky dog position to get back on the lead lap over the next portion of the race, but he would face an uphill battle as the leaders continued to lap other cars. By lap 139, running in 28th position, Mark had moved into the position as the first car one lap down. He spent the next several laps holding off the No. 42 car of Casey Mears for the position, before finally getting spun around by Mears on lap 170. Mark would be forced to come into the pits after the accident to change tires, and he would return back to the field in 31st place.

By lap 230 Mark had moved his Ford back to 25th position, running as the Martinsville 04/2006

second car one lap down to the leader. Mark would steadily move up the field, running in 21st place when the day’s 12 caution was issued on lap 364. The No. 12 car of Ryan Newman, who was the first car one lap down, opted to pit so Mark and crew chief Pat Tryson decided to stay out and Mark was running in 19th place, the first car one lap down when green flag racing resumed on lap 370.

The position was short lived, with Newman re-passing Mark on the next lap. The No. 12 car blew a tire on lap 425, bringing out caution No. 13 and Mark restarted in 18 th position on lap 432, again as the first car one lap down to the leader. Mark was able to hold on to the position and when caution was again issued 23 laps later, the AAA Race Team had finally worked its way back onto the lead lap, running in 18th place.

Back on the lead lap, Mark began to steadily work his way through the field. By lap 473 he broke into the top 15 for the first time of the day. He was running in 13th position when the race’s 16th and final caution was called on lap 492 with only eight laps remaining. The caution forced the field to be red-flagged, and Mark restarted in 12th when the field went green with just three laps remaining. Mark fell back to 13th on the restart, but was able to hold onto the position for the remaining three laps, securing the top-15 finish. The finish was Mark’s 10th straight top-15 finish, dating back to last season.

The team returns to action next weekend at Texas Motor Speedway, where Mark boasts one win, four top fives and five top-10 finishes in 10 starts, including a second place finish there last fall. Mark is now in second place in the point standings, his highest mark since 2002. He is currently 59 points behind first-place Jimmie Johnson.