Mark's weekend in Martinsville started
off well with a sixth-place qualifying effort and a Happy Hour performance
that placed him at the top of the speed charts. Unfortunately, the race
results were not as favorable. Mark's car was very loose at the
beginning of the NAPA Autocare 500 and he slid back through the field in
the opening laps. He went one lap down just before pitting on lap 120. The
crew made adjustments to the car, but it was still loose. Later, a flat
right-front tire cost Mark's more track position and he fell back as far
as 36th position -- four laps down to the leaders. Despite some bad breaks
during the race, Mark's made a late charge and finished 16th, three laps
behind winner Jeff Gordon. "That was a long day for us," Mark said. "It
really hurt us to start off so loose that we went a lap down so quickly.
Considering everything we went through, I'm glad to get out of here with a
16th place finish. I'm already looking forward to Charlotte this week
since we should be a lot more competitive there."
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"I am very relieved to
have Martinsville over with," Mark said. "That has never been one of my
favorite places and I always seem to struggle there a little bit.
Charlotte, on the other hand, has always been good to us. That track is
suited to my driving style. We usually have a good setup for the car,
especially for the day race. It is always an important race for the crew,
too, since it is like racing in their backyard. I'd love to have a repeat
performance of last year."
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Lowe's Motor Speedway was a favorite of Mark's
long before it became Lowe's Motor Speedway. He has posted three wins in
29 career starts at the Charlotte track. Each of the three victories has
come during the fall event. Mark is the defending champion of the UAW-GM
Quality 500 and hopes to defend his title with the same car he won with
last year -- JR-52. "With the way JR-52 ran in Dover a few weeks ago, I
can't wait to race it at Charlotte," Mark said. "We built that car for
The Winston last year, which we won, and then finished fourth in the
600-mile race the following week. We brought it back in October and it
almost won the pole. We ended up leading 215 laps last fall and hopefully
we can do that again this weekend." Mark will also compete in Saturday's
Busch Grand National race in the Winn-Dixie Taurus. Mark won the
Charlotte BGN race in May, and has won five of the 11 races he's entered
this year.
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Of course the biggest buzz over the race
were the madcap misadventures of Tony Stewart, the slam-dunk
leader in the Winston Cup Rookie of the year chase. Stewart was
involved in no less than four accidents and six caution flags.
Three of the wrecks were with former USAC rival Kenny Irwin,
who he disliked then and now: Stewart twice spun Irwin, bringing
out the cautions, and then Irwin retaliated by drilling the
No. 20 car hard into the wall and bringing out a caution on lap
148. As the wrecker operators tried to haul Stewart's mangled Pontiac
away from the middle of turn one, Stewart threw his foot pads at
Irwin and tried to slug him thru the passenger side window.
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