The 2006 Neighborhood Excellence 400

Mark passed seven cars in the final 45 laps of Sunday’s Neighborhood Excellence 400 at Dover International Speedway to Mark at Dover June 2006

battle back to a ninth-place finish and his eighth top-10 of the season. The finish was bitter sweet for Mark, who had one of the fastest cars in the race, leading 39 laps on two different occasions. Mark found himself in 16th position when the field went green with just 50 laps remaining in the race. Running the fastest times on the track, Mark was able to fight his way back inside the top-10 and to ninth place by the time the checkered flag was waved.

“That was a tough one today,” said Mark. “We had a car that was capable of winning the race and in the end we didn’t get it done. But, we didn’t give up and we were able to hang in there and get a top 10 out of it. The team did a great job with the car and we were able to drive to the front. I wish that we could have gotten a finish more indicative to where we ran most of the day or what we were capable of, but we were able to hang in there and get a decent finish.”

Mark was leading with a firm control over the race when the race’s third caution was called on lap 263. The team opted to come down pit road for four tires, fuel and a wedge adjustment, but had to come back down pit road after officials ruled that the car had a loose lug nut on the left front. After Mark had brought the car back down pit road he was back in 11th when the field returned to green on lap 269.

After three more quick cautions the team opted for a two-tire strategy in an effort to regain the lost track position. Taking the two-tires only and making a wedge adjustment moved Mark back to third when the field went green on lap 311. The strategy worked, but the adjustment would prove too much, resulting in a ‘loose’ handling car. Mark would drop back to seventh by the time caution number nine was called on lap 345. The team was forced to come back down pit road to adjust the car’s handling, and Mark fell back to 16th when the race went green for the final time on lap 350. The adjustment worked, with Mark’s No. 6 AAA Ford Fusion once again becoming the fastest car on the track, as he was able to drive back to ninth by the race’s end.

Strong from the start, Mark qualified sixth on Friday and needed only one lap to break into the field’s top five. By lap 15 he was in fourth position and turning the fastest times on the track. On lap 26 he took over the lead from the No. 19 car and led the next 10 laps before caution was called for the first time of the day on lap 36. After a 15.44-second stop to take on four tires and make an air pressure adjustment, Mark returned in third when the field went green on lap 41. He moved his Fusion back into second on lap 57, but eventually dropped back to fifth when the car’s handling tightened up and began to ‘push’.

After another adjustment and taking on fresh tires under caution on lap 115, Mark dropped back to sixth position before eventually beginning to work his way back through the field. Again turning the fastest lap times on the track, Mark moved back to third where he was running when the team came in for a green-flag pit stop on lap 206. After a fast stop of 13.08, Mark found himself back in third once the field had cycled through its stops on lap 213. He then retook the lead on lap 238, and held it for the next 25 laps, before losing it in the pits after being penalized for the loose lug nut.

Mark remains in third place in the Nextel Cup point standings, 216 points behind first and 142 points behind second. After 13 races, Mark is 232 points ahead of 10th place, with 11 races remaining before the Chase cutoff.

The team will return to action next weekend at Pocono, where Mark has never won, but boasts six second-place finishes, and a driver high 19 top-five finishes.