The 2004 EA Sports 500

Mark and the Viagra® (sildenafil citrate) The Blue Crew does their thing

Racing team survived 500 miles of ferocious restrictor-plate racing to escape the “World’s Fastest Speedway” with their championship hopes in tact and a solid hold on fourth place in the Chase for the Nextel Cup.

“Well we survived it,” said Mark as he climbed from his No. 6 Viagra® Ford. “Now let’s move on and go for that championship.”

Mark started seventeenth and ran much of the day moving up and down the field, running as high as fourth and as low as 28th. Mark spent the majority of the day jockeying for position in the draft, running between tenth and 15th positions. The veteran had teamed up with a trio of cars running the low line, moving his Taurus solidly into the top-10. He was running in ninth place when the day’s fifth and final caution was issued with just 10 laps to go, while several - including Mark - were attempting to pit for just enough fuel to finish the race. Mark and two other cars were unable to make it onto pit road in time for the stop. The pause caused a chain reaction that ultimately saw the No. 40 car get into the No. 18. Mark went on to pit for fuel under caution and returned to the field back in 19th when the race went green with only five laps to go.

Mark was quickly shuffled out of the draft, and dropped to as low as 25th on lap 186 with just two to go. Mark was back in 21st with only one lap to go, but made a push on the final lap. Two separate accidents went on to occur on the final lap, but Mark was able to avoid the carnage common to Talladega and move up to the 15th - place finish.

Mark started the race 17th based on Friday’s qualifying and he had worked his way through the draft and inside the top 10 for the first time by the 11th lap, climbing all the way to seventh before being shuffled back through the field. Struggling with the car’s handling, Mark had dropped to as low as 28th by lap 22. He was running in 23rd position when the day’s first caution was called on lap 29. The team used the caution to come down pit road for four tires, fuel, and an air pressure adjustment. The team held serve and Mark returned in 23rd when the field returned to green.

Mark had moved up to 17th when the caution flag waved for the second time on lap 59. Still working with the car’s handling, Mark came into the pits for four tires, fuel, and a wedge adjustment. Fast work in the pits and a stop of 14.163 gained Mark nine spots up to eighth when the field returned to green. Mark continued to work his car in and out of the draft lines, moving up to the top-five for the first time of the day on lap 72, before getting shuffled back to 16 on lap 88.

The pit cycle put Mark in a five-car pack that broke away from the field on lap 98 with Mark running fifth. By lap 103 the veteran had moved his Taurus into fourth place, where he ran for the next several laps, before eventually getting shifted into the outside lane and falling back outside the top-10. The No. 6 was in 19th when caution was called on lap 122. Again the team came down pit road for four tires, fuel, and a wedge adjustment. After a 15.182 second stop Mark returned to the race in 16th place when the field went green on lap 127.

Caution number four was called on lap 144 and Mark again came down pit road for four fresh tires and fuel. The team posted its quickest stop of the day at 13.85-seconds and Mark went in 19th and returned 18th. He wasted little time moving up the field, breaking back inside the top-10 on lap 152. Mark was in a pack of three-wide cars jockeying for sixth through 10th place when the final caution was called on lap 178 when the field tried to pit for fuel, and the team was forced to come into the pits for fuel in order to finish the race.

"I don't think that was a great race. It might have been a great show, but we could have been doing that on a figure-eight or a demo derby there,” said Mark after the race.

“But we didn't wreck and some of them did,” added Mark. “We got out of this one without trouble and maybe we can go and do some real racing for a while. We were lucky to get out of here in good shape and a lot of the people in the top 10 finished behind me because they had problems, so we’ll take what we got here and move on to Kansas where we feel we have another solid shot at the win.”

The solid effort moved Mark up to fourth-place in the point standings, 50 points behind third place Jeff Gordon and 111 points outside of first place Dale Earnhardt Jr., who took the point lead after leading the race. The fourth place position is Mark’s highest place in the point standings since finishing second in the final standings in 2002.

The team returns to action for the fourth race in the Chase for the Nextel Cup next week in Kansas.