Mark is ready to put the past
weekend in Martinsville behind him and look ahead to a much
more encouraging weekend of racing. Mark will compete in
both races at Lowe's Motor Speedway, and is optimistic about
his chances of sweeping the double-header weekend."We've got a brand new Valvoline/Cummins Taurus this weekend that I am really excited about," Mark said. "We've been really strong at the banked tracks this year and we've had good showings at tracks like Darlington, Bristol and Dover. The car we are taking has never been tested, but it went to the wind tunnel and blew terrific numbers. It is a Burton chassis and although we are out of tests, we have a lot of confidence in this car. We are also expecting one of our best engines from Michigan, which should give us a little extra to make the car even better. I am way more optimistic than usual going into this race, and I will be really shocked if we don't run well."
Mark won the UAW-GM Quality 500 in 1998, and is tied with Bobby Allison and Cale Yarborough who have each won the fall race at Charlotte three times. Mark also won in 1992 and 1995. As if having one great race car wouldn't be enough for most drivers, Mark will also have a strong Winn-Dixie Taurus for Saturday's Busch race. The team has not run this car since it was damaged during qualifying at Michigan in August, but it was the best car at the test last week.
"I've won six Busch races at Charlotte and I'd like to put
one more in the books before I stop racing that car," Mark
said. "The Winn-Dixie team set a pretty high goal at the
beginning of the year to get me to 50 wins. We won't make
that, but we still have a shot a winning half of the races
we enter this year. We've won five so far with three more
to go. It won't be easy, but it is attainable."Roush Racing is a subsidiary of Roush Industries and operates nine teams; five in NASCAR Winston Cup with drivers Mark, Jeff Burton, Matt Kenseth, Kurt Busch and Kevin Lepage; two in the Busch Series with Mark and Burton; and two in Craftsman Truck with Busch and Greg Biffle.
