Sharpie 500 in late August, he looked into the stands and saw a
spectator holding a sign with big, bold letters: QUITTER. It was
directed at Mark.Feelings of disbelief and anguish rushed through Mark's diminutive body, once solid but now showing signs of wear from 25 years behind the wheel.
Mark thought to himself:
How could this person possibly understand what I've been through? Has he forgotten I've won this race twice? And won four ASA and four IROC titles? And that I've won more Busch Series races than any other driver and scored 32 Winston Cup victories? And that only once since 1988 -- the first year I drove for Jack Roush -- have I finished outside the top 10 in points? And that I finished among the top five in nine of those years?
Mark quickly returned to reality. He has been in this business long enough to realize fans are fickle. They remember only your last win, and for Mark, the last trip to victory lane was 52 races ago. For that matter, Roush Racing has just one win among its four teams through the first 26 races this season.
So, it's only natural to wonder: What has happened to the powerhouse that Jack built, and what is going on with Mark, who has just three top-five finishes with 10 races remaining?
"This season may not have been as devastating as you might think, but it has been totally humiliating," Mark says. "And I don't need to expand on that."
It's difficult to imagine that anyone would question Mark's dedication. This is a man who was lifted into his car for the July 1999 race at Daytona; a day earlier, a crash during happy hour left him with a fractured left wrist and rib and a busted knee. But Mark persevered, finishing 17th in the race in a backup car.
The next Wednesday, Mark had surgery to repair his knee. Two days later, he qualified his Ford at New Hampshire and drove it to a sixth-place finish in the race. That kept him third in points, the position he held at the end of the season.
This time last season, Mark was eighth in points. Now he's 12th,
largely because he failed to finish four of the first 10 races. It
clearly isn't the same Mark Mark who has been so consistent and
competitive since the 1989 season, when he won his first Cup race
and finished third in points."I think injury and age," Mark, 42, says of the difference. "I look at people in their 20s, and I remember what I was like in my 20s. I worked harder than the competition, and I think that's why I was better. Not because I was better, but I worked harder at it.
"I'm at a different place in my life now, and I'm not always willing to put racing before my family or God. There was a time when that was different -- and everybody just had to understand -- because I didn't apologize for that. I figured I got where I got through my dedication."
Mark's last big season was 1998, when he won seven races, but his father, Julian, was killed in a plane crash that year. Less than two years later, Christian Lovendahl, Mark's nephew and a Busch Series crew chief, was killed in a wreck on his way home from the track.
Slowly, Mark's will to win seemed to evaporate.
"It didn't happen in just one day," he says. "Losing my father was a devastating blow to me, as it was to my son. He was Matt's hero, and that was more devastating than my loss. Everything you are is a result of what has happened to you, the experiences you've had.
"You may have seen me happy on the days I won. Outside of that, you never would have seen that. And part of the time when I won races, there was a drag that came with winning, and that was all the stuff you had to do with victory lane -- the hat stuff, the hugging, the pictures, the press room, the interviews, the deals on Monday, the deals on Tuesday.
"Unless you realize this could be the last win you ever have, it's just a big ol' bunch of work after you win. So it's different."
Jimmy Fennig joined Roush Racing in 1997, but he was Mark's crew chief in ASA and for five races in Winston Cup during 1986. Fennig, speaking of the problems this season, says, "It was just our time." The team has cut up cars and had engineers work on aerodynamics, but nothing has helped.
Maybe Mark is too old, his body too beaten up. No, Fennig says, Mark still is the driver who can return the team to the top five in points.
"He's fully focused on winning when he's at the track, but there are other things in life, like Matt's racing, that bring him pleasure now," Fennig says. "But Mark's effort is there like it always has been. The team knows Mark Mark's a winner, and we'll keep trying to put good cars underneath him."
Mark admits the many weekends by himself at the track are difficult. He'd much rather be watching Matt, 9, race quarter-midgets or having a quiet dinner with his wife, Arlene. But he knows he's paying the price so Matt one day has a chance to follow in his father's footsteps.
"I wouldn't be able to give him those opportunities if I didn't
race," Mark says. "Part of the motivation I have today to be
successful is to give him the opportunity."Mark has four years remaining on his contract with Roush and insists he will honor it. Perhaps he will find a way to recapture some of the joy he once derived from racing. Maybe it will happen this weekend at Dover Downs.
"It's a track I really love to drive on," Mark says. "We go into every race hoping we'll get lucky, hoping we'll hit the set-up and be one of those out-of-the-blue winners. It would be the track I would expect it the most. But as you've seen this year, expect the unexpected."
