12th in the final 2001 Winston Cup standings. It was
unfamiliar territory for the 43-year old Roush Racing
veteran—in fact, it was his first finish outside the top ten
since 1988.The Batesville, Arkansas-native also went winless on the Winston Cup tour for the first time since 1996. It was not your typical Mark year.
Mark, beset with back problems and other assorted ailments for several years, looked rested and ready for the 2002 season when he met with the media at the Texas Motor Speedway Media Day Tuesday
“I feel the best I have since ’97,” Mark said. “Since September, I’ve been going an doing the physical therapy that I should have done after my back surgery (in 1999). I’ve been feeling better ever since.”
The 43-year old Mark will enter the 2002 season with a new crew chief after off season changes at Roush Racing sent long-time partner Jimmy Fennig to the No. 97 team of Kurt Busch. In return, Mark gets Ben Leslie who guided Busch’s team last season.
“I’m feeling good. I’m extremely excited about working and building with a different bunch of guys,” Mark said. “It is a different sort of challenge.”
Along with Leslie, who Mark has known and worked around for some time, the No. 6 team adds several new crew members as well.
“These guys are young and a lot of them have not ‘been there and done that’, a lot of them haven’t won a lot of Winston Cup races,” Mark said of his young crew. “There’s a lot of excitement there because they want it really bad—and I want to be able to (win) with them and see the look on their face.”
2001 marked the first time Mark didn’t run any Busch Grand National races in addition to his full Winston Cup schedule. Some had speculated that could have been the cause of his subpar season, but Mark disagrees.
“That didn’t have any effect. People just looking for excuses or reasons why things didn’t go as good, that’s the nature of this business,” Mark related. “We’re doing everything we can to try to have a better year, but there’s no guarantees in this business.
Mark still holds the Busch Series record for most wins in series history, having amassed 45 victories since joining the circuit in 1987. Still he doesn’t look to the decision to leave the series as having any impact on his efforts with the No. 6 team.
“I had good years and bad years in Busch, too. I had years where I could barely win a race,” he recalled. “Then there were other years where it was almost embarrassing because I won almost every time I raced. It got almost got to the point of being embarrassing because it was so easy at times.”
The off season moves have rekindled a fire in the driver who ran his first Winston Cup race in 1981 and won 14 Winston Cup races with since teaming with Fennig in 1996.
“Sometimes you can’t keep doing the same thing over and over again and expect a different result,” Mark added. He also took the opportunity to remind the Winston Cup world what happened the last time he went through a similar shake up with his team.
“The last time that we changed the whole team, I had the best season of my career in 1998. I won 7 races, The Winston and finished second in the championship.”
As the 2002 season approaches, Mark is rested, physically fit and loaded with confidence—something that should thrill his many fans and concern his many competitors.
