as glum as someone with a flat tire and no spare.While most drivers would be elated by posting a second-place finish and increasing their lead in the NASCAR Winston Cup points race, Mark appeared to be bracing for another year of disappointment.
"When it comes to getting your heart broke, I'm the eternal pessimist," said the acerbic Mark. "This business has dealt me some very cruel and heartbreaking blows. It's not going to this year. I'm prepared for whatever happens."
Mark, 43, is considered the finest Winston Cup driver never to win a series championship. He is NASCAR's version of Dan Marino, the greatest quarterback never to win a Super Bowl; or Ernie Banks, the greatest player never to appear in a World Series.
Mark has won more Winston Cup races, 33, without a championship than any other driver.
Going into Sunday's Protection One 400 at Kansas Speedway, Mark owns a 30-point lead over rookie Jimmie Johnson and 74-point advantage over Tony Stewart. The 190 points that separate the top five is the closest margin with eight races to go since the current points system was implemented in 1975.
"Certainly this is the best crack I've had at it in quite a while," Mark said.
But the memories of late-season heartaches still haunt Mark.
Mark has finished as series runner-up three times, in 1990 and 1994 to Dale
Earnhardt and in 1998 to Jeff Gordon. Four other times -- 1989, 1993, 1997 and
1999 -- he finished third."I've had a lot of success in my career, and I've been very fortunate in what I've accomplished," Mark said. "I wouldn't be broken-hearted if ( a championship) never happened. However, given the choice between winning a title or not.... I've worked awfully hard for a long, long time and I've come really close more than once."
The most excruciating finish came in 1990. Mark forfeited his victory at Richmond and was assessed a 46-point penalty after a post-race inspection revealed he had a spacer bolted to his carburetor. Had it been welded, not bolted, it would have been legal.
Mark lost the championship to Earnhardt by 26 points.
And who could forget 1998 when Mark won a career-best seven races?
"We were awesome," Mark said, "but Jeff Gordon was more awesome than us by winning 13. So you never know."
The last time Mark led the points standings with 10 or fewer races left was 1997, when he held a 13-point lead over Gordon with 10 events remaining. In what ended up being the closest three-way battle in NASCAR Winston Cup history, Gordon prevailed by 14 points over second-place Dale Jarrett and 29 points over third-place Mark.
"We're going to bust our butt to win this championship," Mark said, "but if we didn't win another race this year, we've already done more than we probably hoped to accomplish this year by winning a big race at Charlotte.
"That was the win of my life."
Mark's first Coca-Cola 600 victory last May snapped a 58-race drought. Mark had gone winless last year for the first time since 1996, so owner Jack Roush gave him a new crew for 2002, including crew chief Ben Leslie, 30, who had been with Kurt Busch's team.
"Ben has been fantastic," said Mark. "He's been a guy willing to challenge me
and yet use my experience to his advantage. It's been a good combination."Leslie, who is from the north-central Missouri town of Purdin and a graduate of Linn County High School, has helped Mark to 17 top-10 finishes in 28 races, including last Sunday's second-place finish after starting in the 32nd position.
"The thing about Mark is he will not allow himself to just be an also ran," Leslie said. "If he feels there's something he can change to take us from being mid-pack to the front of the pack, he'll change it."
Mark's feistiness on the track and in the garage commands respect among his fellow drivers, and if they can't win the championship, most would like to see Mark claim the title.
"Mark has given a lot to this sport," said Jarrett, the 1999 points champion. "You have to know what people like Mark and Sterling Marlin have done, the sacrifices they've made, how long they've been at this.
"You would be hard-pressed to find anyone who wouldn't want to see any one of those two guys win. It's not like they're going to retire next year, but they're getting closer to the end of their careers. Most of the other guys are going to have more opportunities."
Even Marlin, the points leader from the second week of the season until relinquishing it two weeks ago to Mark, has a soft spot for Mark.
"If I can't win it, I'd like to see Mark win it," said Marlin, who's now fourth. He pointed out an advantage Mark will have down the stretch.
"Mark has probably won pretty close to every track we're going to from here on out," Marlin said.
Indeed, of the eight remaining tracks on the schedule, Mark has won at all but two, the final stop at Homestead-Miami and at Kansas. He qualified 23rd and finished sixth in the inaugural Winston Cup race at Kansas Speedway last year.
Mark, originally from Batesville, Ark., began his racing career driving on the short tracks of the Midwest and was a bright-eyed, nervous teen-ager the first time he raced at I-70 Speedway in Odessa 25 years ago.
"That was the biggest, fastest race track of my life back in 1977," Mark recalled. "It was kind of scary."
But don't expect Mark to share any warm and fuzzy memories from his days at I-70.
"I don't have time for that," Mark grumbled. "I'm not a softy. I don't have a soft spot. I can't tell you how little time I have. We keep our eye on the target so hard, that we see almost nothing.
"I'll reminisce when I'm in the rocking chair.
And maybe he'll have a Winston Cup championship to savor.
