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| Mark gets under Rousch Racing teammate Jeff Burton for the lead in turn three on lap 192, with Matt Kenseth close behind. Mark goes on to capture the Hardee's 250 victory, his third Busch Series win of the season. |
Better late than never. A light, but
oh so-steady rain delayed the start of the Hardee's 250 for two
hours and 43 minutes, but that only seemed to delay the inevitable.
Mark took the lead from protege Matt Kenseth on lap 197 and went
on to capture his third win of the '99 Busch Series season. Once
Mark gets on a roll, he's one of the hardest drivers to beat in
the business. And on this late night - the race ended at about
12:30 a.m. May 15 - Mark was most definitely on a roll. It was
the 37th win of Mark's Busch Series career, extending his record
for the most in the division's history.
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| Despite the convincing win, Mark seemed almost surprised to be on top of the heap following the race. |
| "I just don't feel like I run that good here." Mark said. "Last time we raced the Busch car here, we qualified 30th and finished fifth. I don't think that's great. We ran real good tonight. "That's probably the best I can ever remember running in a Busch car here. We've won a race here in Winston Cup, and we've had lots of top fives, but I don't remember feeling like we had everybody covered here before." |
| The first three quarters of the event belonged to Progressive Motorsports teammates Jeff Green and Jason Keller. Together, they led all but four laps of the race's first 147 laps before Keller gave up the point when he pitted under caution on lap 148. |
Four cars - Bobby Hillen, Tim Fedewa, Steve Grissom
and Ed Berrier - elected not to pit under the yellow flag, leaving
Green eighth on the lap-155 restart and Keller 12th following a somewhat slow stop.
Neither would lead again.
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| The battle for the win began in earnest shortly after the event's final restart on lap 172. Mark roared to the outside of Roush Racing teammate Jeff Burton for third between turns one and two on lap 172 and they proceeded to run side by side for the next six circuits. Kenseth was right behind. |
| "Iwas pretty uncomfortable with that." Mark admitted. "I would hate desperately to take anybody out, period. But with those guys, I'd really be disappointed with myself. But I had a faster car than either one of those guys, and I wasn't giving it up. |
Burton finally got a run on then-runnerup
Hillin on lap 181, clearing the Texan's Chevrolet as they hustled into
the third turn the next time around. Four laps later, leader Fedewa
smacked the wall between turns three and four after getting thumped
from behind by Burton. Fedewa coasted to pit road without bringing
out the caution, and later made his way around to the garage.
"I really don't know (what happened)." Fedewa said. "We knew we were
racing for the win. I knew Jeff was looking, and I knew he was faster. I
wasn't gonna hold him up by any means. Without looking at the tape,
I ain't gonna point fingers at nobody. I don't think he did it on
purpose, no matter what happened, and I didn't cut him off. I hate
that it damn happened, because we need points. We had a good run
going, had a little better car. It's just one of them deals. Hopefully
our luck will get better."
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