and inspired by his nine-year-old son Matt, who is racing
quarter-midgets, Mark says helping develop youthful drivers
has become almost a passion, cloning his younger days and
generating a bigger thrill for him than racing in NASCAR
Winston Cup.Mark's devotion to his son and his kid development project could very well hasten the retirement of the 20-year Winston Cup veteran, superstar driver and popular personality.
But that's getting way ahead of the story-by a minimum of five years. Mark is committed to drive for Roush Racing and his new sponsor, Pfizer and its Viagra product, through 2005.
"I want to emphasize that I love racing and intend to continue for at least the time I'm signed for," Mark says.
"I don't want to talk or even think about retiring now. It's
a ways down the road. "I do have a plan. The plan says that
in 2003 I'll evaluate my situation in terms of how happy I
am and whether I'm winning races and determine whether I
want to sign another contract with Jack Roush. I will say at
this time that I am more excited about going racing with the
kids than I am about going racing myself."BUSCH BUZZ
The buzz about Mark's retirement plans emanated from his leaving the NASCAR Busch Grand National Series at the end of last season as the circuit's all-time winner.
"Busch has been an important part of my racing career, and I'm going to miss the success I've had," says Mark. "But I never said I'd never drive a Busch car again, although I probably won't if I'm driving a full Winston Cup schedule. The demand is just too much for me now. Five years ago, it wasn't. It's just too hard to manage. I doubt that not racing Busch will have a big impact on me, just give me more peace of mind, more time to focus and reflect."
That said, Mark is gunning for more Winston Cup victories and chasing an elusive Winston Cup championship in his 13th season in Roush's No. 6 Fords. Mark has logged 32 Winston Cup victories, all with Roush, finished among the Top 10-nine in the Top 5-in the championship standings 11 straight years and grossed $25.36 million in race earnings in a big-league career which began in 1981.
But the richest and most prestigious championship in motorsports has escaped him. Three times Mark has finished second, in 1990, 1994 and 1998.
Losing in 1990 by 26 points to Dale Earnhardt hurt most. Early that year NASCAR penalized Mark 46 points for an arguable technical violation. Last year he slipped to eighth, his lowest since his 1 5th in 1988, his first year with Roush.
For sure, Mark wants to be champion and fights tenaciously, as his record indicates. But he measures success by race victories.
IN HOT PURSUIT
"I'd love to be a champion, but it won't ruin my life if I'm not," I he says. "I'm not going to lose sleep over I it. I do lose sleep when I'm a contender I and have a hiccup that costs me points. I have had more success than most drivers and doubt that I would be viewed as more successful with a championship. I don't look at (two-time champion) Terry Labonte, for instance, as being more successful, or less successful, than I am. I But I do look at Bill Elliott and Rusty Wallace as more successful because they've won a lot more races than I have."
Mark failed to meet his standard last year, winning one race. It was the first time in four years he hasn't won at least two, and he fell out of title contention after one of the best starts to a season in his career. The reason is simple.
"Six DNFs killed us," Mark says. "We broke stuff that nobody else ever breaks, three engines and engine-related parts. We also lost a couple of road guys and had some trouble in the pits that I don't think we'll have this year, but personnel problems had nothing to do with the engine failures."
NO LONGER NO. 1?
Mark is not bothered by his team losing its lofty status as flagship of the Roush fleet to Jeff Burton's No. 99, a four-time winner and third in points last year.
"Jeff is a very deserving and successful driver," Mark says. "I won't always be the best in Jack Roush's stable and I realize that. I think Jeff can win the championship this year, but I don't know for sure he can beat me. I don't know how much luck I'll have. We ran well enough in 2000 to be a contender. We led the points going into (the first race at) Talladega. Six races later we were ninth in points. Falling out of contention was somewhat depressing because I really have enjoyed being a championship contender for a dozen straight years. It was a blow to me. Without those DNFs we could have contended with everyone except the No. 18 (champion Bobby Labonte)."
"Well, I think we have a great team, perhaps the best we have had," says Mark, in his fifth season with crew chief Jimmy Fennig. "We have every opportunity to go out and do what we've done in the past. Jimmy has put a lot of emphasis on car performance, and we'll have to see how we stack up against the competition after a few races, I'm really fortunate to be working with devoted and loyal people like Jimmy and Jack. Jimmy lives for the experience of winning. He takes getting beat or not measuring up harder than I do and there are few who take a whooping worse than I do.
"We might win a dozen races or zero. I don't know. In 1996,1 didn't win a race. I was absolutely convinced I'd never win another one and I mean that. The next year I won four and the next, seven. In four years since I've won 14. That's just four fewer than I'd won before 1996. It's just ridiculous, a waste of time, to speculate on who's going to do what. It's certainly more difficult than it was five years ago given the caliber of competition."
It is tougher to speculate because there are more opportunities for young drivers to hone and showcase their talent with first-class, experienced teams- Tony Stewart, Dale Earnhardt, Jr. and Matt Kenseth, for instance.
"There is so much money in the sport, everybody is looking for the next superstar," says Mark, who, along with Roush, gave Kenseth, top rookie last year, his break into Winston Cup. "They have an advantage compared to what I had.
"When I came into Winston Cup in 1981 (Asian under-financed owner/driver), nobody needed me, nobody wanted me, there were no cars for me to drive and no sponsors for me. There was just no room for me. You had to beat people over the head before you got a chance. Now there are opportunities like never before. Talented young drivers are winning races quicker and that leaves fewer for the rest."
MORE KIDS QUICKER
And Mark's objective is to bring more youngsters up
quicker. He wants to organize a highly visible racing series,
perhaps similar to IROC, for kids and develop their talents
before and into their early teens. He envisions youngsters
with real talent being prepared for NASCAR's Craftsman Truck
Series at 16, the Busch Series at 18 and by 21, championship
material in Winston Cup."That's just cool to me," Mark says. "It does me what racing did in my younger days. I want to help kids shortcut their way, an opportunity I didn't have. I think the sport is looking to something like that. A third of Winston Cup's strength is 40-year-olds. I don't see that 15 years down the road.
"The kid superstar development program I'm trying to do is a huge project. I don't even have a formal name for it. The deeper I get into it, the more expensive it gets. And I do have a job, so I really need somebody to work on it full time. I don't know if I'll be successful, but it is something I want to do on my own because of the thrill and satisfaction it gives me."
Working with and watching young Matt, who seems to be a chip off the block as well as perhaps the only quarter-midget driver in the country with a national corporate sponsorship from Cap7n Crunch cereal, has excited and "Matt has progressed from novice to average to good among the kids he races quarter-midgets against in six months," Mark says proudly. "l spent six days with him and other youngsters during the holidays. He has star qualities in personality as well as driving talent. Mix that with experience and I think he'll be good.
"I have my eye on several kids I believe have real talent. Some of them are in quarter-midgets, all but one are younger than 13. I get so excited watching kids race that I wouldn't care if I ever raced again. It totally overwhelms me."
HELPING MEN, TOO
Mark is in position to help not only kids but also mankind as well through Pfizer's "Men's Health Tune Up for Life" program, which offers free health screenings to men and helps educate them and their partners about medical conditions. Pfizer uses a specially equipped mobile unit at Winston Cup tracks, questionnaires and medical tests to screen for such common conditions as high cholesterol, diabetes, depression, hypertension and erectile dysfunction.
"Everyone knows my interest in leading a healthy lifestyle," says Mark. "I am encouraging racing fans to get screened and to take advantage of the program. The best part, thanks to Pfizer, is that there is no cost to fans.
"Sure, I want to win races and have a great season, but it is important to me to have the chance to improve the quality of life, not only for a lot of men over 35, but their wives and children. That I have the opportunity to reach millions of people and make a difference in the lives of some of them is more important than most anything else."
His kid project will leave him something to look forward to if and when Winston Cup racing gets to be too much. Right now, his heart is in two places.
"I certainly wouldn't be happy if I wasn't winning races, if I knew I couldn't win or didn't have a chance. If I knew I couldn't win, although I think that's unlikely, I'd be done, because that would be a stake in my heart. I also have to remember that while I'm at the track 30-some weekends a year, my son is racing somewhere on Friday nights, his mother is there but his daddy is not."
Someday, Mark wants to make his own schedule, to choose what he wants to do. "I don't know where involvement with my son will take me," he says. "Ideally, he will be good enough that he will drive for someone else. Just to be a car owner who goes to the track every weekend has no appeal to me. That doesn't mean I won't do it if my son needed me. I wouldn't quit driving if I were going to a Winston Cup track all the time. I could drive easily until I'm 55, because I'm in better shape than most. Jack and I have a great relationship and I believe we could get a sponsor and be competitive a long time.
"I don't want to stay too long and do so poorly that people in the sport won't know that I won races. I want people to say, 'Man, I don't know why he quit. He can still win."'
