One of the hottest topics in the NASCAR Winston Cup Series
garage lately deals with Mark's recent string of bad luck.He has not earned a top-10 finish since Talladega Superspeedway in April due to several consecutive misfortunes that were out of his control. This is not the first time Mark has had to climb back up in the points during the middle of the season, and thus isn't overly concerned with the situation.
"Things have happened that have been out of our control," Mark said. "We've blown a tire, we've broke, we've wrecked and it can't always be helped. There's not much you can do about a run of bad luck. We've been dealt a stinky hand, but we'll keep playing with the cards we have."
Mark is currently ninth in the standings with one win, four top-5 and seven top-10 finishes. He trails points leader Bobby Labonte by 318 points. The last time Mark was forced to overcome such a deficit was in 1996.
In '96, Mark was 13th in points heading to Pocono Raceway in June 1996, and trailed Dale Earnhardt by 537 points. Although he did not win a NASCAR Winston Cup Series race that entire year, he did manage to finish fifth in the final standings.
"It just goes to show how close the points are right now," Mark said. "There is only a 70-point difference between me and my teammate Jeff Burton, who is in fifth place. Strong finishes at Pocono and Sonoma could realistically put us back in the top-5 in points.
"There is still a lot of racing left to be done this year. Just because we are ninth in points now does not indicate where we will be by the time we go back to Atlanta in November. Our goal right now is to continue trying to win races. If we can do that, the points will work out."
