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| Rusty Wallace's crew ushers him out of the pits just ahead of Dale Jarrett (88), Bobby Labonte and Terry Labonte.(5) Wallace, who has had trouble with pit stops this season, said he rode his crew hard during the race, making sure they kept him near the front of the filed. |
It was a long weekend for Mark and the
Valvoline/Cummins team. Mark was one of the fastest cars
in practice on Friday, but only qualified 32nd with a speed
of 123.873 mph. The team debated on whether to requalify on
Saturday morning, but they decided to stand on their time.
Two cars beat Mark, which gave him a 34th place starting
position on Sunday, and a pit stall on the backstretch.Mark was slightly involved in the very first caution on the third lap of the race. As he slowed to avoid the accident in front of him, he was clipped from behind. Luckily, the car only sustained minor damage to the rear quarterpanel. The car was a bit loose early in the race and the team made adjustments during each pit stop and managed to gain a few track positions despite pitting on the backstretch. Just past the halfway point of the race, Mark was up to 10th place and able to run as fast as the leaders. After running as high as seventh by lap 362, Mark encountered more trouble. During a routine pit stop on lap 386, a lugnut fell off the right-front wheel, which caused a 21.72-second stop. Mark fell back to 14th, and the car was "way too tight," as he described it. The Valvoline/Cummins team had a great stop on lap 413 and Mark was moving up from his 15th place position. The caution came out on lap 436 for one of several spins of the day by Jeff Fuller. As Mark slowed, the lapped car of Ken Schrader came from behind and spun Mark onto the apron of the track. The crew had an incredible 14.58-second stop for fresh tires, but Mark was already one lap down in 21st place. Mark tried to get his lap back, but was never close enough to leader Rusty Wallace when the cautions came out. He managed to finish the race in 16th place, one lap down. "It was a long day for us," Mark said. "Pitting on the backstretch hurt us from the very beginning. We had a car that could have won the race, but once we got a lap down we just didn’t have the luck to get it back. We were really good on the long runs and could run as fast as the leaders. The guys did a great job setting up the car and I wish our finish could have reflected what a great car we had." Mark is now third in the Winston Cup point standings heading to Texas Motor Speedway this weekend. He will compete in Sunday’s Directv 500, as well as Saturday’s Coca-Cola 300 Busch Series race. |
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