The 2005 GFS Marketplace 400 at Michigan

Mark and the Viagra® (sildenafil citrate) Racing team looked to have one of the cars to beat for much of Sunday’s GFS Marketplace Michigan 2005

400, running inside the top five for much of the day and leading 10 laps. However, pit strategy would turn against the No.6 team late, as Mark fell to as low as 31 st and was forced to fight his way back to a 17th place finish.

“We just let one get away today,” said Mark after the race. “We had a good car and ran up front for much of the day, but we stayed out on old tires and lost position and then a lot of cars were able to make it on fuel mileage and we lost even more places.

“It’s disappointing because we had a much better car than that, but we’ll regroup and move on to Bristol and California where we expect to be competitive.”

Mark started the race 14 th based on Friday’s qualifying session. He broke into the field’s top 10 on lap 10 and used the next 10 laps to move inside the top five where he would run the majority of the next 122 laps. The turning point came after the day’s seventh caution on lap 142 when the No. 6 team, running in fifth place opted to stay out for track position. Mark found himself in third place when green flag racing resumed, but he was unable to get his car to ‘go’ on old tires and he soon fell back to as low as 16th place by lap 158.

Mark steadily worked his way back to 10 th place where he was running when the team began to come in for an unscheduled pit stop on lap 182. Mark had already slowed and was seconds away from pit road when crew chief Pat Tryson, anticipating a caution flag, ordered him to stay out one more lap. The caution flag never waved and Mark lost valuable time and position before coming in on the next lap to take four tires fuel and make a wedge adjustment. Once the smoke cleared Mark returned in 31 st position with only 27 laps remaining in the race.

He would be able to recover and make up 14 positions, but it was a disappointing finish on a day the team felt it was good enough to contend for the win.

Early on Mark looked like he would run for his fourth win at MIS. A 13.71-second Michigan 2005

stop by the Viagra® Team under caution on lap 28 put Mark back out in third place. Mark entered the pits second on lap 74 after the day’s second caution and another fast stop of 13.20 seconds sent him out the race leader when the field went green on lap 76.

Mark eventually gave up the lead on lap 88, but ran inside the top five for the next 30 laps before the car’s handling began to tighten up and he dropped to seventh on lap 118 where he was running on lap 128 when the day’s sixth caution was issued. Another fast stop by the No. 6 team, a 13.57-second stop, put Mark back out in fifth place when green-flag racing resumed on lap 132. Ten laps later the seventh caution was called on lap 142; Mark stayed out and began to drop back and was never able to fully recover.

The finish was good enough to keep Mark in fifth place in the Nextel Cup points race. With only three races remaining before the 26-race cut-off period, Mark is currently 197 points ahead of 10 th place and 80 behind fourth. He trails first by 369 and leads sixth by 30 points.

The team will return to action this Saturday night at Bristol where Mark has two wins and 20 top-10 finishes.