One of the most anticipated events of the month
occurred when a broadly grinning Mark got behind the
wheel of his No. 6 Valvoline/Cummins Ford without assistance
for several exploratory laps of the speedway to test his
recovery from lumbar fusion surgery that was performed in
November. Mark reportedly made three short runs and also
participated in the drafting session in the afternoon.
He said despite his smile of relief, he could be happier.
"Not as much as bringing home the trophy would, but that's a
start," he said of how happy he was to get back in his race
car. "It felt good. It felt real good to put the uniform on
and it felt good to get in the car. It felt too good to go
fast relative to what I've been doing lately, but not
relative to the competition yet. We're still working on
that part."While Mark said he was thrilled at the job Biffle, (189.609 in the draft sessions),
was doing in his stead, he also noted he expected to be back
and at a 100 percent level when Speedweeks 2000 begins for
the NASCAR Winston Cup Series on Feb. 11. "Yeah -- that's a
no-brainer," Mark said, grinning again. "I'm ready now.
I'm fine. I drove 24 hours after I broke my arm and my knee
and a rib last year (in an accident in practice prior to the
Pepsi 400 at Daytona) and I'm certainly in a lot better shape
than that now." Mark noted that he had not stopped to
consider whether or not his recovery time from his surgery
was unusual. "I didn't ask them what the recovery would be,"
Mark said. "I didn't want to know -- I didn't need to know,
it didn't matter because I had to get the work done. I would
have just agonized over it a lot more if I would have known
how bad it was gonna be and how serious of an operation it
really was." "They're amazed," he said of his doctors,
"but I'm just happy. I feel good and I'm so thankful."
|