he comes again, challenging for the NASCAR Winston Cup championship.Then you ask all over again: Could this be his year?
And it never has been.
It may never be. Even Mark is thoroughly resigned to that thought, his mantra being, "If I never win a championship, I'll still have had a very rewarding career."
Mark thinks of his 32 wins, then of all the drivers who have never won at all, and considers himself lucky.
But once again, he has a legitimate shot at the championship. He is second in the standings (where it seems he has spent half his career), 77 points behind Sterling Marlin.
This weekend, the Winston Cup circuit races at Chicagoland Speedway, a level playing field for both. Marlin and Mark have won on 11/2-mile ovals this year, at Las Vegas and Charlotte, respectively.
Mark tested at the Joliet, Ill., track in June, "and we were pretty pleased with the results we had," he says. "We finished sixth there last year [in the inaugural Tropicana 400] and hopefully we can keep the ball rolling with another strong finish this week."
Mark leads all drivers with 12 top-10 finishes this year. Regaining his consistency and momentum, after a miserable and winless 2001, is a masterpiece of a comeback for a man who has had many.
He is 43 now, and still walks lopsided with back problems that surgery two years ago didn't alleviate. He drives in pain, but like another diminutive NASCAR driver of the past, Cale Yarborough, the 5-foot-6, 135-pound Mark is a study in sheer toughness and stamina.
If consistency is the life's blood of winning the Cup, experience is the marrow. "You can't win a championship until you've lost one," is the bromide among veterans. Mark is more battle-tested than anyone else in the current top five in the standings. Jeff Gordon (fifth) has won four titles, but Mark was in a neck-and-neck duel with Dale Earnhardt in 1990, when Gordon still raced on dirt tracks.
Rusty Wallace (fourth) won the 1989 championship, but other than that, he has
been in the thick of a title fight only a couple of times. Neither Marlin nor
rookie Jimmie Johnson (third) has been in NASCAR's version of a pennant
race.Six times, Mark has been in the stretch run for the title. Twice, he has gone to the wire with the winner.
He has seen every psyche job imaginable. For example, in 1990, when Earnhardt, in the waning weeks of the season, subtly worked on Mark's acknowledged past problems with alcohol. When the two were served lemonades at a news conference in Phoenix that fall, Earnhardt cracked, "Has this got any vodka in it?" Later, looking ahead to testing for the Atlanta finale, Earnhardt said he and Mark would work together: "We're gonna make a lap, then come in and have a beer . . . make another lap and come in for another beer . . . make another lap . . ."
Mark never blinked, never faltered, losing by only 26 points to Earnhardt at his peak.
In 1997, Mark made it a three-way fight with winner Gordon and Dale Jarrett. In '98, he was the last man left in contention with Gordon.
Team experience is equally vital, and Mark has made all of his runs at the championship with Roush Racing -- which happens to be the hottest team right now, with five wins. Mark and teammate Kurt Busch have won once each, and Matt Kenseth has won a circuit-leading three times.
Thus, one more time, there is reason to ask if this is Mark Mark's time -- at last.
