The 2002 Chevy Monte Carlo 400

Mark and the No. 6 Viagra® (sildenafil citrate) Racing Team capped off a Mark and Rusty battle at Richmond

weekend in Richmond with a sixth-place finish in Saturday night's Chevy Monte Carlo 400. The strong finish, that saw Mark gain five positions in the race's final 10 laps, moves Mark back into second place in the championship race; only nine points outside of first place Sterling Marlin.

"The team really gave me a great car this weekend," said Mark. "We really didn't get the type of finish that indicates just how good this car was. We ran great for the first 300 laps, but we seemed to drop off some after that. Still, this team never gives up and there's nothing wrong with a sixth-place finish."

The Viagra® Racing Team was strong the entire weekend, posting fast times right off the truck and running to its best qualifying position of the season; a forth place starting position. By the final practice on Friday evening, the No. 6 Ford Taurus was running so strong that Mark and the team opted to forgo the final half-hour of the session.

The race saw three cautions in only the first 16 laps, the first of which involved and ended the night for point's leader Marlin. A few laps later, second place Jeff Gordon began to experience engine problems. Mark was running in sixth place when the field went green after the third caution on lap 25.

Careful not to get involved in an early accident, Mark fell back to seventh place where he was running when the team came into pit after caution number four. With the car running well, Mark opted for only a small track bar adjustment and tires. However the No. 77 car, which was pitting directly behind Mark, came over into the No. 6 pit forced the No. 6 team to work around the car. The situation forced a slower stop and Mark found himself running in 15th position when the field went green again on lap 73.

Still, the No. 6 Ford was lighting fast and Mark worked his way back into the top 10 by lap 82. By lap 108 Mark was running in sixth position; by lap 146 the veteran driver broke inside the top five. The team was running seventh when it came in for it's second pit stop of the day on lap 178. This time under green flag conditions. With the car handling near perfect, the team took only tires and fuel. With several cars not having pitted yet, due to the pit sequence, Mark returned to the field in 23rd place.

Most of the remainder of the field had pitted and Mark was back up to 12th place when caution number seven was called on lap 206. Mark came in for tires and fuel and returned to the field in 19th place when the field went green on lap 217. A quick caution one lap later caused Mark to come up one lap down to the first nine cars that had yet to pit, but Mark was able to recover the lap when caution came out on lap 243.

The car began to level off and by lap 290 Mark had dropped back to 14th position. With only 21 laps remaining in the race, Mark found himself in 16th position. However the veteran driver dug in and began gaining positions. Mark moved the Viagraā Ford Taurus to 15th place on lap 383, before using the next seven laps to gain four places up to 11th. Two laps later, Mark broke back into the top 10, before using the final eight laps to pick off four more places and run to the sixth place finish.

"We take them one race at a time and we show up each week and do the best we can," added Mark when asked about the Championship race on Saturday night. "How the other guys are doing really has no effect on our race. We just do whatever we can do to win and we do that each week. Beyond that, everything else has a way of taking care of itself."

The finish is Mark's 16th top-10 of the 2002 season and his 19th top-10 career finish at Richmond. Trailing first place by only nine points, Mark and the No. 6 Viagra® Racing Team will take to the track in New Hampshire next Sunday. Mark has not led the Winston Cup Points Race since the spring of 2000.