The 2005 Ford 300

Mark and the No. 9 Pennzoil Platinum race team notched their fifth top-five finish of the season with a third-place finish The #9 Pennzoil Ford hits the pits in the Ford 300

The #9 Pennzoil Ford hits the pits in the Ford 300

in the Ford 300 in the Busch Series season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway. Driving in his second NASCAR race of the day (Mark finished eighth in Craftsman Truck Series race earlier in the day) Mark started the race seventh and led 13 laps en route to the third place finish.

“We had a really good car with the No.9 Pennzoil Ford today,” said Mark. “We just weren’t quite as good as those two guys in front of us. We were able to run with them for a while, but they just seemed to roll through the corner a little better than us. It wasn’t a huge difference, but it was enough for them to get away from us a little bit.”

Mark started seventh and wasted little time mounting a march to the front. By lap 10 the veteran had cracked the top five. With the exception of a handful of laps Mark would run inside the field’s top five for the remainder of the race. The Busch Series’ all-time winning driver moved into second on lap 80, before taking the lead from Ryan Newman on lap 85 just before the day’s fifth caution.

Mark led the next 13 laps before giving the lead up to come down pit road under the day’s sixth caution on lap 99. With the car performing at its best level of the day, Mark took four fresh tires and fuel. A few cars opted to stay out and Mark returned in sixth position as the field returned to green on lap 106. Four laps later Mark moved back inside the top five.

Mark broke back into third on lap 146 where he was running when the day’s seventh caution was issued on lap 152. The team again came down pit road for four tires, fuel and an air pressure adjustment and after a stop of 14.80-seconds returned to the field in second place when the field went green on lap 157. Mark was unable to hold off the No. 66 car of Greg Biffle and fell to third on lap 160. He lost third position to Kevin Harvick on lap 169, but passed Harvick’s No. 21 car back on the following lap. He was able to hold off Harvick’s charge for the remaining 30 laps and move on to the third-place finish.

The finish was Mark and the No. 9 team’s sixth top-10 finish in eight Busch starts in 2005. Mark finishes his 2005 Busch season with two wins and a pole.