enough speed to rank second in last year's Winston Cup chase, only 38
points behind Tony Stewart's championship ride.The 2003 model is sleeker on the racetrack - and yet sinking in the standings.
Even for Mark, a racing realist whose pessimism perhaps has become the most recognizable part of his personality through two decades in NASCAR, falling back while feeling faster has been immensely frustrating.
"It drives you crazy," he said. "We have a whole lot faster race car than I've had here the past few years, and we've fared much worse. For the average, we've been as good or better with cars as last year and haven't gotten near the results."
After reviving his career last season with his fourth runner-up showing in the points, Mark has endured a puzzling regression in 2003. After opening the year with back-to-back top-10 finishes, the 44-year-old disappeared from the title hunt. In a stretch that dates to mid-June, Mark has managed to crack the top 10 only once in the past nine races.
The slide has dropped the Arkansas native to 14th in the points - on pace for his worst statistical season since 1988.
"There's a number of reasons," he said. "One is the easy-way-out answer: bad luck. But there's a lot more to it. We have had communication breakdowns at times. We've had mechanical breakdowns based on trying harder than we might on engine parts and pieces that break and fail. We've got ourselves caught where our fuel mileage isn't as good as some of the other competition, which is burying us."
A weak starting position often has bitten Mark. Traditionally a solid qualifier with 41 career pole positions, Mark has begun in the top 10 only four times this year and averaged a starting spot of 20.8.
Being stuck in the pack has negated his newfound speed. Mark is one of many veterans who have complained passing often approaches the impossible because the cars are aerodynamically overengineered.
"That has led to a lot of frustration for [crew chief] Ben Leslie and I, and we probably haven't functioned as effectively," Mark said. "We're trying to get our arms around all those things. We've improved our fuel mileage a lot, but we're not done yet. We need our luck to turn. We need to get smarter and more effective in the interactions between Ben, myself and our team."
Mark has credited his pairing with Leslie before the 2002 season as the major reason for his turnaround. During a dismal 2001, Mark went winless and finished 12th in the standings
The addition of Leslie brought Mark his first victory in more than two years and a car that rarely was out of contention. Perhaps most impressive was a finishing kick of five straight top 10s, his strongest run of 2002.
"Last year was a magical year for me," he said. "I lost the championship by 38 points, but it still was magical. We had a great team that just could recover from unbelievable things."
But the No. 6 seems snake-bit this year. At Bristol Motor Speedway last Saturday, Mark started second and led 49 laps before a penalty for a pit miscue left him in heavy traffic. Bumped by a backmarker, he crashed a few laps later and placed 36th.
The composure of his crew through such long races is helping drive Mark.
"They have done a winning job of keeping their morale up and keeping their nose to the grindstone," he said. "[A win] would be good for me, but these guys are the ones that deserve it. I've been blessed with a terrific career, with much more success than I probably even deserve, so I'm not feeling cheated. But I do feel like they've sort of been cheated a bit."
