The 2006 Lenox Industrial Tools 300

Mark picked up two positions during a green-white-checkered finale to earn a fourth-place finish in Sunday’s Lenox Mark starts 13th at Loudon

Industrial Tools 300 at New Hampshire International Speedway. Making his 600th consecutive Cup start, Mark and the No. 6 AAA Race team used the combination of a good handling race car and sound pit strategy to earn their third top-five finish and their ninth top-10 of the season.

The team had to overcome a stroke of bad luck in the pits midway through the race, and battle back from the tail end of the lead lap. Mark restarted in sixth position when the field went green for the final time on lap 307. He moved into the top-five just one lap later and picked up one more spot just before the finish line, overtaking the No. 11 car which was running out of fuel.

“We had a really good-handling car,” said Mark. “It wasn’t the fastest out there but it was good enough that we could skip tires. Sometimes you can’t have it all, but if you can just have the handling you can do a lot. We took gas only the last two times in, so we were disadvantaged on tires, but in the end that didn’t hurt because the car would work on them. We were able to hold our track position with good strategy and we were able to turn in a good run.”

Mark started the race 13th and quickly fell back to 16th by lap six as he patiently waited for the car’s handling to come around. The car eventually tightened up and Mark had moved back to 14th by the time the race’s first caution was issued on lap 19. Crew chief Pat Tryson opted to bring Mark down pit road for right-side tires and fuel and Mark returned in 14th place when the field went green on lap 26. Mark had moved all the way to 11th by lap 28. However the car’s handling loosened over the long run, with Mark dropping back to 16th by lap 68. Mark again was able to regroup and mount a move through the field, breaking into the top 10 just before caution number two was called on lap 91.

This time the team opted for four tires and fuel and Mark returned to the field in 11th when green flag racing resumed on lap 95. After another quick caution, Mark moved to ninth on lap 99. By lap 121 he had driven his AAA Ford Fusion to sixth place and he was running fourth when the team came in to pit for four tires and fuel on lap 184. It would prove to be Mark’s final tire stop of the race. However, the team caught a stroke of bad luck when caution was called after just one lap, trapping them one lap down and in 20th position. Mark stayed out under the caution and restarted on the tail end of the lead lap on lap 194. Mark was able to stay in front of the leader and rejoined the lead lap when caution was called for the seventh time on lap 199.

The team would take fuel only during cautions on laps 201 and 211, moving Mark up to 11th position when the field went green on lap 214. Two laps later, Mark broke back into the top 10, where he would run for the remainder of the race. Mark opted not to pit under cautions nine and 10 and he restarted in sixth place on lap 271. The strategy proved sound, with Mark remaining in the top 10 for the remainder of the race. He was running in seventh position when the race’s final caution was called on lap 298, setting up the green-white-checkered finish. Mark restarted in sixth and was able to pick up two more positions, en route to the fourth place finish.

The finish was Mark’s best at Loudon since July of 2000. With the run, Mark moved up to fifth in the Nextel Cup point standings, four points behind fourth and 120 out of 11th.