"This gets harder every year," Mark said. "The preparation
you did last year is never enough for the next year. There
are always teams out there that force you to raise the bar.
Next year we intend to be one of those teams. We hope to be
the ones that everyone uses to set their goals for 2002."Mark's lower than usual finish in the points was not caused by his lack of strong finishes, but rather the uncharacteristic six DNF's throughout the season. Mark had the same number of top-five finishes as Dale Earnhardt, who finished second in the points. His three unavoidable accidents and three engine problems gave him six finishes of at least 32nd place, including two consecutive last place finishes at Pocono and Indianapolis.
"The problems we had throughout the year had nothing to do with the strength of our team," Mark said. "This is probably the best team I have ever been involved with. The effort they put into their work did not equal the results we ended up with at the end of the season. I didn't have the strongest car at Martinsville, but we won the race. On the other hand, there were several races like the Daytona 500, Talladega in April and Loudon in July that we should have won, but didn't."
Mark led 65 laps at the Daytona 500 and was in second place with 13 laps to go. He made his move to pass Johnny Benson with the promise of drafting help from Dale Jarrett. He quickly learned that drivers do not have any friends at restrictor-plate races and promises are often broken. He finished the race fifth.
He led 98 laps at Talladega in April and was in command of
the race drafting with Jeff Burton until a caution came
out with 11 laps to go. On the restart, Jeff Gordon and
Mike Skinner lined up between Mark and Burton, so Mark
lost his drafting partner. He held off the two Chevrolets
until the final four laps, but their run to front sent
him back to a sixth place finish.Mark was third at New Hampshire in July and had the best fuel mileage of any team. Tony Stewart and Joe Nemechek were ahead of Mark, but both would have to pit one more time for fuel before the race ended. Unfortunately for Mark, the race ended sooner than expected when it began to rain with 27 laps to go and the remainder of the race was canceled.
He also had a shot at the win in Watkins Glen. It came down to the final laps between Mark and Steve Park. Park had gained a one-second lead while Mark and Burton battled for second place. Once Mark got by him, he chipped away at Park's lead for the final 10 laps. Had there been a few more laps, he could have earned his fourth career win at the road course.
"Ever since Martinsville in October, I have been really pleased with the cars I have driven," Mark said. "Our pit stops have improved every week. Based on where we finished this year despite our bad luck, I think the changes we began in the last 10 races will carry over to give us a strong start for Daytona next year."
