The 2001 MBNA Platinum 400

"Mark earned another top-10 finish Sunday at Dover after rain canceled Mark gets caught up in Jimmy Spencer's mess

qualifying and most of the Winston Cup practice throughout the weekend. Mark and the Viagra®(sildenafil citrate) team made the most of the little practice time they had and they were ready to race when the skies cleared on Sunday.

Mark started 18th based on the point standings since qualifying was canceled due to rain. This was a disappointment to the team since Mark had been fastest in practice Friday morning and would have been a favorite to win the pole. The track position hurt him early in the race since he was caught up in an accident on lap 15. The car sustained damage to the left front fender, so Mark pitted three times during the caution to repair the damage.

He was back in 33rd place when the race resumed on lap 21. The car was too tight, but Mark patiently worked his way forward to 29th place until the next caution on lap 59 when he could pit for more adjustments. The crew had a great 14.68-second stop which sent Mark back to the track in 19th place.

The car was getting better and Mark moved up to 16th until he pitted again on lap 151. They lowered the track bar since the car was a bit too loose. Jeff Gordon, who led most of the race and eventually won, came within three seconds of putting Mark a lap down when a much-needed caution came out on lap 179. Mark was able to pit for adjustments again and returned to the track in 13th.

The car was too tight and Mark ran in 15th place from the halfway point of the race until lap 271 when he made another green-flag pit stop. The crew reversed some of their previous changes, which seemed to make the difference.

By lap 290, Mark had moved into 12th place and was in the top-10 by lap 320. His lap times were as fast as Gordon's and to make up time on the track, Jimmy Fennig decided to only change right-side tires on their final pit stop. Mark collected five bonus points for leading lap 354 before he pitted for the final time on lap 356. The 6.93-second stop put Mark in second place with 44 laps to go.

He was gaining on Gordon until a caution came out on lap 364 when Ron Hornaday spun on the track. Since it had only been eight laps since he pitted, Mark decided to stay out with the leaders. Some of the cars behind him decided to pit for newer tires, but the team felt they would have a better advantage by maintaining their track position.

The race resumed with 32 laps to go. Some of the cars with fresher tires were able to get by Mark in the final laps, but he held on to finish ninth. The solid top-10 finish moved him up to 14th in the Winston Cup points.

"I'm pretty pleased with that finish," Mark said. "Track position really hurt us all day, but we had a good car and were faster than the leader on that set of tires towards the end. Everybody on the Viagra® team did a great job today. Our pit stops were really good and that helped us gain the track position we lost since we had to start by points. We probably never would have been in that accident if we could have started up front, but it all worked out okay in the end."

"The Viagra® team had a good car for the amount of practice they got," Jack Roush said. "They were handicapped by a starting position based on points. The car was excellent at the end when it really counted. Jimmy made the decision to gamble on two tires late in the race. Mark supported that decision and it would have taken a ninth place finish and put it in the top-five if the caution wouldn't have come out."

Despite his cool, calculating persona, team owner Jack Roush engenders a gambling, go-for-it attitude in his race teams when the situation demands it.

Such was the case Sunday in the MBNA Platinum 400 at Dover Downs International Speedway. On the final round of green flag pit stops, crew chief Jimmy Fennig and Pfizer/Viagra Ford driver Mark Mark threw all their hopes for victory behind a two-tire stop with less than 45 laps to go, when every other top contender went for four Goodyear tires.

The debate for two versus four and track position versus more stick occurs in virtually every NASCAR race run. But in this particular case, the Roush organization had a larger specter looming over it. Roush’s four teams total only one victory, six top-fives, 13 top-10s and two Bud Poles in 52 starts this season.

The choice was the proverbial no-brainer for Roush, NASCAR Busch Series driver Greg Biffle and Fennig, who shared the top of the pit box. A six-second pit stop by car chief Shawn Parker and the boys put Mark in second, 8.5 seconds behind Jeff Gordon after he had stayed out six laps longer to lead for the first time.

But a broken track bar pitched Ron Hornaday into a spin on the frontstretch with 37 laps to go and the ensuing fifth and final caution allowed a horde of chasers, including Ricky Craven, Sterling Marlin, Tony Stewart and Kevin Harvick to pit again for fresh rubber.

In the end, Mark slipped to a ninth-place finish, but for a team that has struggled direly after being expected to contend for the championship, it straightened their backs like 1,000 volts.

“We had to gamble -- we had nothing to lose,” Fennig said. “If it would’ve went green, we wouldn’t have lost that many spots, so we had to gamble. It didn’t work, but we had to try something.”

In what was a long three-hour, 20-minute day, the Roush gang was put in that position when Mark was involved in a backstretch jingle on lap 15, brought out when Jimmy Spencer was spun out in the middle of the field.

“We got involved in that second caution on the backstretch and it knocked the front end out,” Fennig said. “I don’t know what it did, but it messed the front end up. We couldn’t adjust what was bent on the left front so we had to leave it. Mark did an excellent job trying to get this thing to the front. He’s the best.”

“We had a lot of bad luck today,” Mark said, professing not to know how much potential the ding cost him. “We were in good shape (without the last caution). We couldn’t beat the 24, but we were gonna be in a lot better shape.”

In truth, no one had much for Gordon, who won for the fourth time at Dover with a dominant car that led 381 laps.

“We didn’t need a caution,” said Mark, who continued his role as the only Winston Cup driver to lead a lap in all 13 races this season. “If we had not got a caution, we would’ve got a top-five finish out of it. It was a good recovery for the whole team. I don’t know what else we could have done. We just haven’t had any luck.

“Our car wasn’t really all that good but it was spectacular on the long runs. We got it at the end and we really had a shot at a top-five with a car that probably didn’t belong there. The team did a good job but we weren’t lucky today.

“Track position and a wrecked-up car was what we were fighting today. We did our best and did better than a lot of ‘em but not near as good as what we’d like.”

“We’ll just keep digging and keep trying,” Fennig said.