Mark and the No. 9 Pennzoil Platinum Team ran
to a seventh place finish in Friday night’s Funai 250 at Richmond International
Raceway. It was Mark’s 18th top-10 finish in 23 Busch races at Richmond, and
Mark’s third top-10 finish in four Busch starts in 2005.
“It was a good run for the No. 9 Pennzoil Team,” said Mark. “We had a good
car on long runs, but with all of the wrecking going on out there, it was
really hard to do any racing. It seemed liked every time we went around
someone was wrecking, so we didn’t really have a chance to see how good
the car might be. Still the guys did a good job all night and we were able
to get a solid finish out it.”
Mark started 10th and ran inside the top 10 for virtually the entire race.
Running sixth, the team pitted after the night’s third caution on lap 57. The
team opted to come into the pits for four tires and fuel. The majority of
the field stayed out and Mark returned to the field in 28th when green-flag
racing resumed. Eventually the gamble to pit paid off with Mark able to
stay out during the next two cautions, thus advancing back to sixth when
the field went green on lap 117 after the day’s fifth caution.
Mark’s car was strong on long runs and the veteran all-time win leader in
the Busch Series broke into the top five for the first time of the race on
lap 185. However, the race was a virtually caution fest with 13 on the
night and Mark eventually fell to seventh place on lap 223 after several
more cautions. The team was unable to get the long green-flag run it
needed and Mark was able to hang on to seventh place as the race fittingly
finished with a green-white-checkered finish after the night’s final caution
with only three laps remaining.
Roush teammate Carl Edwards was able to get by Elliot Sadler for the win,
as Mark notched his 133rd career top-10 finish in the Busch series.
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