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| Mark, who dominated the entire race from pole to finish, leads Jeff Green to the finish line at the Kmart 200 |
It was just another day at the
office for Mark. Strap in, race and when quittin' time comes,
head on over to victory lane. Mark held off Jeff Green in the
final laps of the Kmart 200 to collect his sixth Busch Series win
of the season, his 10th at Rockingham and the 40th overall
of his career. No other driver has more, in any of those categories.
Clock in and a couple hours later clock out. It's almost that
simple for Mark in the Busch Series in general, and in the
Busch series at Rockingham in particular. Don't try putting
that theory past Mark, though. He had his hands full trying to
keep Jeff Green behind him. "(The car) was a little bit weak
on the short runs," Mark said. "Early in the runs, somebody would
pass us and go on for just a little bit and then my car would come in.
It hadn't come in yet at the end of that little 20-lap run. Jeff was
all over me
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"I had to run almost harder than
I could. If I would have made a mistake anywhere, he would have been there
to get it. So it puts you in a bad situation when you've gotta
drive almost over your head. You can't afford to slip either. I
had to work pretty hard for that one." Mark is not the giddiest
of winners in the Busch Series. It's pay day, and while he's happy
for a moment or two, he doesn't dwell on it for long. Mark isn't
an in-the-moment kind of guy. He's always looking ahead, to his
final Winston Cup practice immediately following victory lane
ceremonies and after that to his next Busch Series win.
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He doesn't, however, consider winning
in the Busch Series routine. "Nothing is routine in racing," Mark said.
"Winning is gratifying. Winning a Winston Cup race is more gratifying
yet than a Busch race, but it's all gratifying. It's not gonna
last forever." Mark started from the pole - his fourth at Rockingham
again, more than any other competitor - and led the first lap
before giving way to Dale Earnhardt Jr. It took a while for Mark's
Rousch Racing Ford to dial in exactly the way he wanted it.
"I wasn't happy at all with the car yesterday in 'Happy Hour'" Mark
said. "I did a little bit of pondering about our setup overnight.
I talked with (crew chief) Tony Lambert this morning and told him
the changes that we needed to make to the car. We had a lot of adjustments
on the first pit stop. After that, the car was just really hooked up,
especially on the long runs. It was a little bit off on the
short runs, and someone usually on new tires could get by
and run out there ahead of us for a little bit. Then, their
car would slow down and our car would just kep on coming."
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Only three other drivers - Earnhardt,
Matt Kenseth and Todd Bodine - led the race, and none were out
in front more than once or more than Earnhardt's 34 laps. Once Mark's
car came in, it was all but over for the rest of the field. In all,
Mark paced the pack four times for a total of 142 laps. Not only was
Mark on top of his game, he had some luck to boot. Kenseth and
Earnhardt - running second and third, respectively, at the time -
had just come in for green-flag stops on lap 150 when Bobby
Hamilton Jr. crashed betwen turns three and four to bring
out the caution. Earnhardt got caught a lap down, and although Kenseth
stayed on the lead circuit, his shot at winning was pretty much
done for the day. Mark, meanwhile, stayed on the track,
comfortably in the lead.
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"We were coming in that lap, and Jack
Rousch was my spotter. He said 'Stay out, stay out,' so I
got in gear and got it back off pit road," Mark said. "I
wasn't down pit road yet, so that was a good deal for us.
It would've had an impact on us winning the race, I think, if
we would've got caught on pit road and got a lap down. Anytime
you have a bunch of your competitors pit under the green and you catch
a caution before you pit, it's a break no matter what."
After the leaders pitted under caution, Green rolled off pit
road second behind Mark, and spent the rest of the race trying
to figure out a way to get by Mark. Several times during the
final few laps, Green pulled up to Mark's bumper, but never
could get the Winston Cup star loose enough to make a pass.
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It wasn't that Green would've
tried making some contact to get Mark skating up the track, mind you.
"He was making me tight up under his car," Green said. "I got to him
but getting to him is a different story than passing him. I respect
him more than anybody out here, I think. I think he does more
for our sport than anybody. If the roles were switched, he would've
never hit me and turned me sideways.. "I could've knocked him
out of the way and won the race, but I wouldn't have been able to
get up in the morning. I wouldn't have been able to walk down he
hall and meet Mark Martin. I'm pretty proud of my team. They made
the adjustments right to get me where I was. The car wasn't
very good at first and we fell back a little bit."
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Mark was concerned about Green,
but not so much it forced him into making a mistake. The final
caution period ended with 25 laps to go, and Mark's car was
better on runs twice as long as that. The racer in Mark
kicked in, and he had just enough to keep Green running second.
"It came right down to a pretty short sprint there at the end
on fresh tires," Mark said. "I was concerned about it. It's a
good thing I was in front. If I hadn't been in front, I wouldn't
have been able to pass Jeff in the short amount of laps
we had. He kept the pressure on me. I had to make sure I
ran hard, ran fast and never left a door open anywhere, make no
mistakes. The pressure was really on me. It was a situation where
I knew that any minute he might be able to slip under us. He was even
looking to the outside, trying that. I just tried to keep the
thing going as fast as I could. We made it. We made it to the
end."
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