Mark has been in the top 10 in points every year since 1989
and has been out of the top five only three times during that
period.He has also won at least one race every year since 1989 except for 1996.
Going into Sunday's race in Michigan, Mark has not won this season and has just three top five finishes. He is currently 12th in points.
"They've taken the driver out of it," Mark declared. "(Jack) Roush has some of the best drivers out there and we're all struggling.
"The sport has become too technical, and its becoming more that way every day," Mark said.
"I don't have near as much influence over the outcome as I did 10 years ago. I can't contribute the way I used to."
Other top names, like defending Winston Cup champion Bobby Labonte and Rusty Wallace, who won four races last year, have also struggled.
Jimmy Makar, Labonte's crew chief, tends to agree with Mark that technology has become the dominant factor in stock car racing.
"I don't like where we're headed," Makar said. "We've become so aero dependent. We're making three or four times more downforce than we were 10 years ago."
Because of the emphasis on aerodynamics and downforce, if a car isn't right when it hits the track there's very little a driver can do.
"I think NASCAR needs to take a hard look at this," Mark said. "I think NASCAR has to take a major step to limit what we do to these cars.
"They've got to do something to put the driver back in the equation," Mark said.
"Even Jeff Gordon, when he gets behind somebody, has a problem. You can't run unless you're out front."
"Aero is a huge part of it," Makar agreed. "Unless somebody messes up in the corner, it's hard to pass. Track position is everything. You have to be in the right place at the right time."
Since all the cars develop an aero push, or inability to make the front end turn, when they run behind somebody, front downforce has become crucial.
Aero push occurs because the cars depend on air flowing over the front to press the front end down. When one car gets behind another, the front car prevents air from reaching the car in back.
Teams that can plant the front end are able to drive under cars that push, or move up the track, in the corners.
"You want to soften the left front to get the valence (front air dam) down to the ground," Dale Earnhardt Jr. explained. "The lower you get the valence, the better it is."
Air flowing under the car tends to cause lift, lessening
downforce. The lower the front air dam, the less air gets
under the car and the more downforce you have.NASCAR requires that the front air dam, which extends down from the bumper, have a three and one-half inch ground clearance.
By utilizing what are called bump rubbers, hard pieces of rubber that fit between the coils of a spring, some teams were able to make the front end lower under racing conditions.
Essentially, what they did was use a soft spring that lets the front end drop. The bump rubber would stop the spring from compressing all the way down, keeping the body of the car from hitting the track.
But teams that couldn't make the bump rubbers work complained and NASCAR outlawed them, saying bump rubbers were dangerous because they made the suspension too stiff.
Officials said that wheels came off the ground when the cars hit a bump, making them harder to control.
The rule change seemed to hurt the Pontiacs in particular because Makar and other Pontiac crew chiefs made them an important part of their setups.
Dave Charpentier, an engineer at Dale Earnhardt Inc. and one of the top technical minds in the sport, disputed NASCAR's assertion that bump rubbers were unsafe.
"That kind of technology is used in every other racing series," Charpentier said. "We felt it helped our cars. If you improve downforce, it helps the car get through the corner."
Now they have to find another way. But don't ask the driver. As Mark will tell you, it has nothing to do with him.
