Allstate 400 at the Brickyard and has a solid record at the race, with
four top-five finishes in 11 starts.Some seeds of that success were planted in a small Indiana town of 1,400 people about 135 miles north of Indianapolis.
North Liberty, Ind., was a stop on Mark’s rise to stock car superstardom. The tiny, peaceful hamlet is an 18-mile drive southwest of South Bend, Ind., which is the home of fellow NEXTEL Cup Series driver Ryan Newman.
In what seems like another lifetime for Mark, he lived in North Liberty while competing on the American Speed Association’s (ASA) Midwest-based stock car circuit. Mark joined ASA in 1977 after a meteoric start to his racing career, which began at age 15 in 1974 on the dirt tracks near his hometown of Batesville, Ark. It took Mark only three races to collect win No. 1 on the dirt tracks near his home.
After earning ASA Rookie of the Year honors in 1977, Mark won three consecutive ASA titles, from 1978-80, then attempted to break into NASCAR. Despite some on-track success, sponsor woes stunted his first attempt at the series, and he returned to ASA and captured a fourth series title in 1986.
The championship was just what Mark needed to launch a rewarding NEXTEL Cup career with team owner Jack Roush, beginning in 1988. He is a four-time series runner-up and has 34 career NEXTEL Cup victories.
Mark appreciates the success and riches he has accumulated in NEXTEL Cup racing, but he looks back at his time in North Liberty and at the Midwest short tracks with the fondness and perspective of a veteran who is nearing the end of his top-flight career. “The best times of my life were in the ASA days, for sure,” he said. “Life was a lot more simple, and racing was a lot more pure.”
Unfortunately the NEXTEL Cup Series competitor’s lifestyle – constant weekday appearances and testing spliced between 38 weekends of racing – leaves little time for reminiscing. Mark’s annual return to Indiana for the Allstate 400 at the Brickyard on Aug. 7 is no exception, although he wouldn’t mind the opportunity to visit his Indiana past.
“I never see anything but this racetrack (Indianapolis); it never crosses my mind,” Mark said. “But if I came up here on my own time, I certainly would, but I don’t ever get a chance to do anything or go anywhere that reminds of what I used to do. This is all-consuming, what we do at this point, but someday, certainly.”
Mark turned 241 laps of testing July 18-19 at the Speedway in his Roush Racing No. 6 Viagra Ford, more than any of the 45 other drivers who tested in July at IMS.
“We’re just looking for that competitive edge,” he said.
That competitive zeal hasn’t diminished for Mark, 46, despite announcing Oct. 14, 2004 that the 2005 season would be his last in NEXTEL Cup Series racing. But Mark’s departure for the shorter schedule and lower stress of the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series in 2006 may be hold.
Mark’s successor at Roush Racing, Jamie McMurray, has one more year on his contract with Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates.
“I have pretty much made the commitment to Jack (Roush) that I would drive the car until Jamie took over,” Mark said.
The hope was that McMurray could join the team in 2006, but Ganassi Racing team owner Chip Ganassi elected to exercise a one-year option on McMurray’s contract.
Despite his hope to gracefully walk away from the grind that is the top tier of stock car racing, his focus is unrelenting, proven during testing at Indy.
Mark knows what’s at stake coming to Indy: solidifying a berth in the “Chase for the NEXTEL Cup” for the second consecutive year and a potential 14th top-10 finish in points in the last 16 seasons.
“I run a lot of laps because we’re working real hard,” said Mark, who has earned six top-10 finishes in this event. “When I go to test, I don’t go to mess around. We’re on the racetrack at 9 a.m. when it opens, and we run more laps then anybody ever does, so that’s why we go test. Otherwise we’d stay home. We feel pretty good about our stuff and our car.”
Once Mark’s NEXTEL Cup career ends – whether it be at the end of 2005 or 2006 – the greater free time afforded by the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series might give him time to enjoy a relaxing drive to North Liberty and do something he’s never had time to do: Take in the peace and quiet, and reminisce.
