The 2002 NAPA Auto Parts 500

Mark and the No. 6 Viagra® Racing team managed just three top-five finishes a year ago. Two thousand and two has been a different story. Salute to Jack Roush

Sunday in California - only 10 races into the season - Mark drove to his third top-10 finish. The finish is Mark's sixth top-10 finish of the young season and the 299th of his storied career.

"We just went out and fought all day," said Mark, shortly after the race. "We had a great car and we worked our way up the field as the day went on."

Mark started the day on the 13th row after qualifying 26th on Friday. It seemed a stroke of bad luck would cost the No. 6 team early. Mark - who had worked his way up the field and was running in 14th place - was forced to come into the pits for a green flag stop on lap 99 after a tire had begun to get loose. After taking four tires and making a wedge adjustment, Mark reentered the field a lap down and in 31st position.

Fortunately for the Viagra® racing team, caution would not come out for several laps, and when the other cars were forced to pit a few laps later, Mark gained his lap back and was running in 12th place by lap 119.

"We had a problem today and got real lucky." said Mark. " We had to make a pit stop about 20 laps early and it wasn't gonna work out too good, but everybody cycled through and we got back on sequence."

The day's second caution occurred on lap 141 when the No. 32 car of Ricky Craven hit the wall. Mark - running in 11th place - came in to take four fresh tires. Quick work in the pits (15.26 seconds) sent Mark back our in the top 10 for the first time in the race; running ninth when the field went green on lap 146. Mark quickly worked his way up to seventh place.

Caution came out again a few laps later when teammate Matt Kenseth brushed the wall on lap 155. Mark came in for four more tires and a wedge adjustment to the rear of the car. More quick work in the pits sent Mark back out in sixth position when the field went green on lap 159. The No. 6 Viagra® Ford Taurus broke into the top five for the first time on the day just a few laps later (lap 161).

Forced to battle lapped traffic for the next several laps, Mark dropped back to ninth Mark and Kurt

place by lap 183 and was running in eighth place when the caution came out again on lap 195. The No. 6 team came in for four tires and another wedge adjustment on lap 196. Mark came in the next lap to top-off the gas tank, in hopes that the extra gas would make the difference. No other car in the field topped off and if the race were to stay caution free for the final 57 laps, the No. 6 team would have a great shot a victory lane. Running in ninth place when the field went green on lap 198, the No. 6 team was ready to make a run.

Mark battled through lapped traffic for the next 20 laps, moving up to sixth place by lap 211. However, the caution the No. 6 team was hoping would never occur, came out when Kevin Harvick sent the No. 8 car of Dale Earnhardt Jr. slamming into the wall on lap 229. Mark came in for four tires and air pressure adjustments on lap 233, returning to the field in fifth place when the field went green with just 14 laps to go in the race on lap 236.

Mark fought off a vigorous charge from Dale Jarrett during the final six laps of the race to hang onto the fifth-place spot. The finish - Mark's 191st career top-five- moved Mark up to sixth place in the point standings. Mark has finished in the top-10 in six of ten races this season.
"The team worked all day," said crew chief Ben Leslie. "They never gave up and we just kept plugging away. It's another top-five finish and those are the type of things you have to do to contend for a championship."

"It was another terrific effort by the guys," said Mark. "We had a great car and a good run. It's gonna take an outstanding car to win one of these things, but we're happy to run in the top five. We've got a little bit more to go, but I love these guys. These are some good cars. We've just got a little more work to do.

"It was a hard race. There was a lot of green-flag racing here and we ran good enough even though we started back and had problems. We still ran good enough to stay on the lead lap, so we really earned that one."

Mark and the No. 6 team head to Richmond International Speedway for the Pontiac Excitement 400.