2000 MBNA.com 400

Shawn Parker and Jimmy Fennig try to fix Marks broken transmission

Mark had "the car we were looking for", but he had only fourth gear the second half of the race and had to settle for a sixth-place finish.

The Roush Racing driver led twice for a total of 60 laps. But after the problem developed, Mark was toast on the restarts. Mark would lag behind coming to the green flag, but steadily regain the spots he lost. Back and forth.

"Restarts were a bear," said Mark who'd won Dover's last three fall events. "We were lucky to finish sixth today. We got right there where we wanted to be, to be a contender, and then had to pit."

"Then, we lost the straightaway. Then we got most of it back. We caught the 18 (Bobby Labonte) and was getting ready to pass him. Then it took a whole 51 laps to catch him again."

ON TO MARTINSVILLE:

Mark hopes to repeat his winning performance from earlier this year at Martinsville Speedway. Although it has never been one of Mark's favorite tracks, he has had some success there over the years. Mark has finished in the top 10 in 17 of his 29 starts at the .526-mile oval. Mark's win in the spring race came courtesy of some great pit strategy, and some hard driving in the closing laps. Mark pitted on lap 411, and then inherited the lead when others pitted on lap 436 and he stayed out. He led the final 64 laps for his first win of the year.

"I was doing all I could do at the beginning of the race trying to conserve the car and the brakes," Mark said. "I wasn't riding around with a bunch of extra left. Once we got the lead, man, I just ran like a dog. That's all I could do and I was hoping for a top-10 finish, but nobody came. I guess we had the right setup at the end. At the time, it felt like the biggest win of my career. The ones that are the most fun to win are the ones you never expected to win."

JR-82 AGAIN:

Despite winning the spring race, Mark's team is taking a different car to Martinsville this weekend. Mark will race JR-82, which he drove to third-place finishes at Bristol and Richmond within the last month, and an eighth-place finish at New Hampshire two weeks ago. After Martinsville, the busy car will get a break as the team debuts a new car for Charlotte and runs a superspeedway car at Talladega.

MARTINSVILLE NUMBERS:

In his Winston Cup career at Martinsville, Mark has two wins and three poles in 29 career starts. He has also posted 10 top-five finishes, and 17 top 10s. He has won $762,340 in his Winston Cup career at Martinsville.
MARK FASTEST IN CHARLOTTE BGN TEST:

Mark tested two Winn-Dixie Fords at Charlotte Motor Speedway earlier this week and came away with the fastest lap of the session (176.875 mph).

"That was a really good test for us," Martin said. "We took my favorite car, `Ol Yeller," and the car we wrecked at Michigan last month. Both of them were good, but I think the Michigan car is the one we will race next week. It seemed to be about three-tenths of a second faster than the other car."

Despite having the fastest time of the test, Mark did not test in qualifying setup. The fast time he set was run in race trim with no tape on the front of the car.

"We ran about 380 miles between the two cars, all in race setup," Martin said. "It made for a long day, but I think we learned a lot. You can never tell with this track because you can run well there one day and it can be totally different the next time you go back. Jeff Burton and I tested on different days, but I know his car was really good also. He won in the spring and he should be tough to beat again. I'd really like to win this race since it will be my final race at Charlotte in the Winn-Dixie Taurus."

NEVER SAY NEVER:

Mark holds the record for most BGN wins at Charlotte, with six. He has not won a BGN race at Charlotte since May, 1999, so he seems overdue to visit Victory Lane one more time before his "Farewell Tour" ends. "I won't say that I will never go back to the Busch series," he said, "But I won't go back to a schedule like I have now with a full-time Winston Cup schedule because it's more than I feel like I have time to handle properly."


Congratulations, Tony Stewart , for the win at the 2000 NASCAR Winston Cup MBNA.com 400 in Dover, DE