The last thing Mark needed in the No. 21 Bubba Burgers/Bush’s Baked Beans Ford Saturday
was a stop-and-go finish in the Easy Care Vehicle Service Contracts 200. Three cautions in the
final 50 laps, however, stalled Mark’s late-race charge, but gave the team a fourth-place
finish.
Mark, who was making his final selected appearance for Wood Brothers/JTG Racing, had four
Top-Six finishes in six races for the famed race team. Jon Wood will close out the season in
the No. 21 Ford F-150, starting with next Friday’s race at the Texas Motor Speedway.
Mark qualified 15th and quickly moved into the Top 10. His truck was set up for long runs
on the 1.54-mile raceway and he was making his way toward a possible victory when his momentum
was stalled by late-race cautions, including two in the final 24 laps.
After making the outside groove work for most of the day to get inside the Top Five,
Mark was forced to move to the bottom groove in the final nine laps. His Ford F-150 didn’t
respond, so he settled for another Top-Five finish.
In all, Mark and Wood have combined for nine Top-10 finishes in 14 starts.
“I sure would have liked to have gotten them a win,” he said. “It was just about good enough,
just not quite with those short little runs, but on the long runs it was really strong. Yeah,
it was just tough. We could have on a long run, but on the short run I just didn’t have enough
and couldn’t clear them. On a long run, I could pass any of those guys. The thing was really
easy on its tires.
”We had a lot of fun with this deal this year. Our toughest hurdle was communication. It took us
a while where they would give me the changes I really wanted. When you run a handful of races
with a new team, your biggest challenge is creating a level of communication. We just needed a
little more time together.”
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