As it is, he is a four-time championship runner-up, arguably the best
driver never to have won the Nextel Cup. It's a distinction he apparently
will carry for another year, to the delight of maybe half the people in
the motorsports media who know him or think they do.Mark couldn't care less about what kind of "press" he generates. At age 46 and in his 18th Cup year with car owner Jack Roush, Mark doesn't need the media to define who he is. More importantly, Mark understands and appreciates that his Roush Racing team - one that could have abandoned him a year ago - has his wiry back covered.
"You know, I guess I'm just lucky," Mark said Tuesday on a national teleconference conducted in a break during testing for the inaugural Dickies 500 at Texas Motor Speedway. "I can't be the most fun driver in the world to work with. I mean, I'm not a comedian. I put a lot of emphasis on effort and not a lot of emphasis on having fun."
Six races into the Chase for the Nextel Cup, Mark sits seventh in points - 170 behind leader Tony Stewart with four races remaining.
Mark's latest bid for the Cup can best be described as precarious heading into back-to-back races at sister tracks Atlanta Motor Speedway and TMS. For instance, a repeat of the 35th-place finish he logged in the season's final short-track race at Marksville Speedway on Sunday would seal the fates of both Mark and the team he says he is honored to be a part of.
"They have earned my respect to the highest degree," Mark said of the group led by crew chief Pat Tryson, "and I try to treat them with the kind of respect they deserve."
Mark finished fourth in the inaugural 10-driver/10-race Chase last year, having already announced that 2005 would be his final full Cup season. After congratulating Roush teammate Kurt Busch on securing his first Cup title, Mark made sure his own shop was in order.
"One of the greatest honors I've had is my team staying together for 2005 because we had such a great season in 2004, and our camp was raided and people were trying to steal our guys," said Mark, driver of the No. 6 Ford Taurus. "These guys stayed because I asked them to stay, and because they thought that we could, you know, contend for this championship once again.
"They did that for me, first. I feel like they did it for me. They may have done it for themselves, but I say they did it for me, and I choose to believe that they did it for me and that's why I love them."
False sentimentality is not part of Mark's makeup; a secure knowledge of self most certainly is.
"I get frustrated like other people," said Mark, Cup runner-up in 1990, 1994, 1998 and 2002. "Believe it or not, though, a lot of the people, a lot of the fans, don't see my frustration. When I get frustrated, I'm like anyone else. I don't function quite the same when I'm frustrated as when I'm not. But I do give those guys respect, and I appreciate them. I try to give them positive reinforcement, and I try to give them credit for what they do and how great they are."
Mark said people too often perceive him to be the ultimate pessimist, rather than an old-school, hard-scrabble realist.
"I don't expect a great result (every race); I expect the result to be what it is, you know?" Mark said. "My expectation, though, is the effort. I'm pretty demanding in the effort department, but the results I just try to accept."
At one point, Mark was asked if he would like to work for a guy like himself.
"Yes, I would," Mark said. "I feel like I'm a good guy."
And a great stock-car driver. In fact, he's still the best driver never to have won the Nextel Cup.
