It was big news last year when he didn’t finish among the top five in the Global Crossing at The Glen in his No. 6 Valvoline Ford, because for 10 consecutive years, from 1989 to 1998, Mark invariably was challenging for the lead or on top when the race ended.
It’s been four years since Mark’s last Global Crossing @
The Glen victory. He’s hoping this year to put the skids on
Jeff Gordon’s record six straight road-racing winning streak
and start one of his own. Gordon comes to Watkins Glen
boasting three straight wins in the Global Crossing @ The
Glen.The torch was passed in 1998 when Mark and Gordon staged an . amazing two-car battle for the trophy. Gordon won that round.
"Jeff was a smart driver,’’ said Mark after that race. "He gave us a driving lesson. He was just awesome. Jeff’s just too strong. I had hopes of staying out there in front of him, but I couldn’t. I didn’t have the race car that I needed to win the race, but I still tried real hard. We’re just doing our best, racing hard every week. I’m giving it all I have."
During the peak of Mark’s road-racing performance, Mark captured three consecutive Global Crossing at The Glen titles from 1993-95, all from the pole position.
With that kind of record, you have to figure Mark was schooled in road racing as a youngster or went to some fancy-pants, road-racing program. In reality, the Arkansas native was taught the basics of road racing on the back roads around his home when he was growing up.
To Mark, it’s not road racing, it’s "just plain driving," as he calls it.
"It’s just like when I grew up in Arkansas and I drove the car,’’ said Mark, who has accumulated four road-racing victories on the Winston Cup circuit. "The roads were gravel roads, and they were hilly and curvy, and had ditches on the side. You just drove as fast as you could go and stay out of the ditch.’’
As a boy, Mark’s father, Julian, would take his son to car accident sites and reconstruct the incident as a lesson for his boy.
"He would take me out there and say, ‘He dropped his front wheel off the pavement here and hooked his tire there,’ stuff like that," said Mark. "I learned a lot of lessons about driving from my father."
He needed years of oval race schooling to figure out how to go around and around on a circle track, but road racing came naturally.
"Oval racing is not the same as driving down a country road,
because you don’t really shift and you go around in a
circle and go through the same turns over and over again
without hills and different banking," the Florida resident
said. "To me, there’s nothing more natural, no more natural
driving, than just getting in a car and going on a road
course. That is how almost everybody learned how to drive a
car on the road — probably a road with curves and with some
hills, and you had to shift some gears and then started
driving faster. The next thing you know, you’re road racing."Mark likes his chances in this year’s Global Crossing @ The Glen, a 90-lap romp through the woods over Watkins Glen’s 2.45-mile course. Whether it’s road racing or "just plain driving" Mark would like to bring his Roush Racing Ford back to Victory Circle at this scenic facility.
"Everywhere we go is another chance to score another victory,’’ Mark said. "We have a great race team, and the guys are doing a really nice job. They’re pumped up, and each race is another opportunity. I don’t view Watkins Glen as a better opportunity than anywhere else at this point. I expect to be competitive here."
