In perhaps their toughest race as a team, Mark
and his U.S. Army teammates simply refused to give up during Sunday's Jim Stewart
400 Nextel Cup race at Richmond International Raceway.
Mark battled an ill-handling Car of Tomorrow for the majority of the 300-mile event.
He went a lap down half-way through the race and fell as far back as 26th on the
three-quarter-mile oval. Still, the team never lost confidence as the hard-driving
Mark fought his way back to the lead lap with just 23 laps remaining. He went on to
claim a 17th-place finish.
Despite the result, his worst of the seven races he has competed for Ginn Racing in
2007, Mark gained three spots in the driver standings and currently stands in 14th
place. In the owner point standings, the 01 Ginn Team is ranked sixth.
"We weren't really able to get a grip on our Army Chevrolet today," said Mark, who
averaged a 6.16 finish in his first six races. "We had a hard time with the car's
handling, especially how it rolled through the center. But we kept soldiering on.
Ryan (Pemberton, crew chief) and this U.S. Army team were like our soldiers --
they never quit. They kept on battling and we were able to fight our way back to
the lead lap and to a respectable finish. I'm so proud of these guys."
The next Nextel Cup event for Mark and the 01 team will be Saturday night in Darlington,
S.C. It will be another COT race
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