From a youngster from Arkansas, to a teenager in the American Speed Association
(ASA) to the determined driver that entered Winston Cup for the first time
in 1981, Mark's face was a combination of determination and wonderment.Mark first came to stock car racing's top series as an owner and driver. He failed in his first attempt, and after an ill-fated experience with team owner J.D. Stacey in 1983, Mark returned to ASA to rebuild his racing career.
"I wasn't very bright either," Mark said of his first foray into NASCAR. "I was only a team owner for one year, and then I was bankrupt. I was pretty dumb. I haven't really demonstrated that I was much brighter on occasion since then. I don't know why that was such a big surprise."
Mark returned to Winston Cup in 1987 with team owner Jack Roush. Now he is 44 and entering the final phase of his racing career.
He once was one of the new kids in the garage, when the likes of Bobby Allison, Richard Petty, Cale Yarborough, Benny Parsons and Buddy Baker were the same age Mark is today.
Now, Mark is seeing talented newcomers such as 24-year-old Ryan Newman and 27-year-old Jimmie Johnson playing his former role.
"There are a lot of good times and a lot of good people," Mark said. "I had some good relationships with Darrell Waltrip and Allison. It's changed a lot since then, and when I first came to NASCAR there were some old-timers there that I didn't much want to hear about how it used to be and I didn't much want to hear about that.
"And I try not to bore everyone. I try not to do that and be one of those old-timers talking how it didn't used to be like this." The passage of time can be read on Mark's face. The stress, the strain, the traveling and the pressure have turned Mark's once youthful face into a wizened one, similar to Prune Face in the comic strip "Dick Tracy."
Mark remains a rock-solid figure in the sport and his determination is as strong as ever as he begins the 2003 Winston Cup season with Roush Racing.
After disappointing seasons in 2000 and 2001, Mark showed he was still a winner in 2002. He returned to victory lane after a 73-race drought when he won the Coca-Cola 600 on Memorial Day Weekend.
It was his 33rd career win, and he used it as a springboard to a championship chase that fell just 38 points short of Tony Stewart at the end of the year.
Mark remains one of the best drivers in the sport. You can read it in the lines in his face.
"I have been racing a long time," he said. "It was just another example of what I have been through a number of times in my career. If my car is not fast, I can't win with it.
"We had a spell there when we weren't very fast and thanks to the team and (crew chief) Ben Leslie, they acknowledged to change all of that."
Despite finishing second in the standings for the fourth time in his career, it was a season to remember for Mark.
"For me, in probably every way, 2002 was the best year of my life, the best year in my career for a number of reasons," he said. "I'm just very grateful and thankful to the people that have supported me. "Although I'm not an eternal optimist, I do feel that I have an awful lot to be thankful for."
Mark often has said if he never wins a Winston Cup championship, he still has enjoyed a better career "than any skinny kid from Arkansas could have ever dreamed of."
He is one of the most respected drivers in the sport. He is perhaps the cleanest driver on the track - something his competitors have come to admire.
Mark also is quick to give advice to newcomers in the sport, hoping to make big-time auto racing even more professional.
"Mark was the one guy that I went to as a rookie Busch driver for advice, and he always took time for me," defending Winston Cup champion Tony Stewart said. "Here was this big Winston Cup driver ... and I was a nobody in a part-time Busch schedule. He gave me plenty of good tips and answered questions that I had, and I had a lot of them.
"When I had my battle for the IRL championship in 1997, it was with a buddy of mine, Davey Hamilton. Knowing that I was racing him for it, knowing that one of the two of us was going to get it was a good feeling. It was somebody that I was friends with. And I felt that way about Mark."
Stewart admits to being a Mark fan, hoping that if he can't win the championship, Mark does some day.
"Some guys go their whole career and don't ever win a championship," Stewart said. "I hope that doesn't happen to Mark. He is very deserving to win the championship, and I think before it's all said and done, he'll get his. They'll get him a championship."
Mark's championship chase in 2003 begins with the Daytona 500 on February 16. It's a race Mark never has won, but with so much emphasis placed on aerodynamics and drafting on the high banks of Daytona, the best driver often doesn't win NASCAR's biggest race.
"Historically speaking, Dale Jarrett has been in a lot better shape than I have been at Daytona, so to hear him frustrated can just give you an idea of how I feel," Mark said. "We can definitely go to Daytona and win the 500, but it will probably be a little bit more difficult for my car than Dale Jarrett's car and he sounds like he's pulling his hair out.
"We have a lot of work to do."
Mark knows it can be done. He has come close to winning at Daytona before but always has seen another driver celebrate in victory lane.
"We were in contention to win the Daytona 500 in 2000," Mark said. "We were also in contention to win it in 1997. I think we led the most laps that day both those years, and those were the two years that I had cars that were really contenders to win. You don't have to have a car fast enough to win every time. So we'll go down and we're going to try to pull one out. We're going to try to figure out a way.
"That's what we do ever Sunday, and we have won a few races in my career when we didn't have the favorite from a speed standpoint, so we'll go down there and do the best we can."
Time may see Mark win the Daytona 500 and ultimately a Winston Cup championship before his face turns to his young son Matt's promising racing career.
The lines and wrinkles on Mark's face offer a revealing look at NASCAR's past and present. But he also sees even bigger things for the sport in the future.
"I can't imagine what this thing is going to be like 20 years from now," Mark said. "It's scary. I will tell you in 10 years, this sport is getting ready to change again just as much as it has in the past 10 and in the next 10.
"If you look at this series and any other kind of racing and any other kind of sport where NASCAR's continued to grow and most of the other sports have continued to decline, it's incredible. I have a lot of respect for NASCAR."
And those in NASCAR who have come to know Mark have a lot of respect for the driver whose face has experienced so much of the sport's rapid rise in such a short period of time.
