The 2001 NAPA 500

Mark started Sunday's NAPA 500 in second place after turning a Mark Martin

lap of 190.463 mph during qualifying on Friday. Mark was pleased with his car in the early laps of the race, but his day nearly ended early. Dale Earnhardt Jr. hit Mark from behind on lap seven while trying to pass him for second place. Mark did an amazing job of saving the racecar and continued to race with the leaders. The car had damage to the bumper, but nothing that severely affected the handling. The Viagraā (sildenafil citrate) Taurus was loose, but Mark moved back into third place. The first caution of the race came out on lap 18. He intended to come in for adjustments, but the two cars ahead of him stayed out on the track. Little did he know that the rest of the field behind him would come into the pits.

When the race resumed, the car was still very loose. That fact, combined with the rest of the field having newer tires, sent Mark back through the field. He dropped back as far as 39th place and lost one lap before he was able to pit under green on lap 61. The team made an air pressure and wedge adjustment, and by lap 82 Mark was back on the lead lap running in 15th place.

He lost a lap again on lap 100, and Mark told the crew he could not run with any cars around him because it made the car too loose. The crew added more wedge to the car on lap 110 under caution, but then the car was too tight. They removed the wedge on the next stop on lap 122 and Mark returned to the race in 29th place. The car worked much better and he was able to run with the lead cars, but he was still one lap down.

Mark pitted on lap 192 and the team had a fast 13.94-second pit stop. The green-flag stop put Mark two laps down, but the caution came out on lap 201. Earnhardt Jr. was leading at the time and slowed down to give Mark one of his laps back, which was the least he could do after nearly wrecking him at the start of the race.

Mark was 28th and one lap down when the race resumed on lap 208. He worked his way up to 21st by the time the next caution came out on lap 263 when Ricky Rudd brushed the wall. Mark pitted for the final time for a quick air pressure adjustment. He was 23rd when the green flag dropped with 57 laps to go. He fought for the best finish he could and ended up in 22nd place.

"That was a bad deal that we didn't pit when the rest of the field did early in the race," Mark said. "When the first two cars stayed out I just figured everyone else would too. If I had come into the pits when they didn't, it would have been my luck that everyone would have stayed out. That put us a lap down pretty early and we just never got the opportunity to make it up. I'm real proud of the team because they never gave up. We kept working on the car to make it better and we could run some pretty competitive lap times. Unfortunately, we weren't on the same lap as them."

Friday will be the Winston Cup season finale at New Hampshire International Speedway. The Atlanta race should have been the finale, but New Hampshire was rescheduled after the terrorist attacks in September.