For Mark, regarded as the best driver without a Winston Cup points
championship, the next 13 days could be the kindest - or cruelest - of
his racing career.Monday alone will be more significant to Mark than any other driver. Mark will find out very soon whether NASCAR will subtract points from his season total after the left-front spring on his Ford failed a post-race inspection.
Similar infractions have drawn 25-point penalties. A 25-point hit would be huge to Mark, pushing Tony Stewart's lead to 112 points rather than the 87 it unofficially shrank to after Sunday's Pop Secret 400.
Mark entered the race at North Carolina Speedway in second place in the points race behind Stewart. Mark finished the race second to Johnny Benson and left second in points.
But while the motto "We're No. 2!" isn't going to sell T-shirts for anyone but Rusty Wallace, Mark has edged into Stewart's rearview mirror.
Down 146 at the start of a magnificent autumn afternoon at North Carolina Speedway, Mark wakes up Monday morning only 87 points behind. That's because Stewart struggled to a 14th-place finish at The Rock that could have easily been worse - his car seemed to have an anchor tied to it all afternoon.
What was once a wild points race has settled into simplicity with 34 of 36 races completed.
Realistically, Stewart and Mark are the only guys with a shot at the title.
But if Mark's team draws a point penalty rather than just a hit in the wallet, Mark will become even more likely to finish No. 2 again in 2002.
Who knows how Mark feels right now?
Phil Mickelson probably does. Mickelson has won millions of dollars, but never grabbed that golfing major.
Dan Marino probably does, too. So does Barry Bonds. Stars without championships - it happens in every sport.
At age 43, with 20 years in Winston Cup racing and as the father of five kids, Mark knows more than to stake his life on the next two races. That's a good thing, because this points race is still Stewart's to lose.
"Let me tell you something," Mark said after the race when asked about
his previous near misses. "I've had a great career. If I could have won
'em, I would have won 'em all."You've got to like Mark for having enough self-confidence to pilot a car sponsored by Viagra. He's respected by his peers for his clean racing and his consistency.
But what a twist it would be if Mark finished second again this year after another points penalty. In 1990, Mark was penalized 46 driver points and $40,000 for an illegal carburetor spacer at Richmond. Without that penalty, he would have beaten Dale Earnhardt for the championship. With it, he finished second by 26 points.
Mark has won 33 races in a career as steady as the sunrise. Starting in 1989, this is how he has finished in the points championship: third, second, sixth, sixth, third, second, fourth, fifth, third, second, third, eighth and 12th. Only in the past two seasons had he seemed to slip a bit, but then this season he has run near the front nearly every weekend.
Mark can be a dour guy. He said Sunday after the race, "I don't think we were as good as we looked" and that he had to "overdrive the fool" out of his car. (By the time the infraction in Mark's car had been announced, all the drivers were long gone).
When asked how much confidence Sunday's second-place finish gives him in the season's final two races, Mark said: "None. Confidence doesn't score the points. Performance does."
Comedian Jerry Seinfeld once delivered one of the most cruelly appropriate lines about second place, saying it meant: "Out of all the losers, I'm the No.1 loser."
Mark has done too much good in NASCAR to be considered a loser.
But he needs a heck of a good run - starting Monday, with NASCAR's critical decision - to avoid another silver medal.
