The Old Dominion 500

After a rain delay that postponed the Old Dominion 500 until Monday, Mark Mark Martin

was ready to race and proved that he was a contender with his third consecutive top-10 finish.

The Viagra® (sildenafil citrate) Taurus was good from the drop of the green flag as Mark carefully maneuvered his way around the half-mile oval. The crew made no changes to the car during the first pit stop on lap 56, but Mark dropped back to 17th place after the stop since many teams only took two tires rather than four. He was still pleased with the car and continued to move forward.

A two-tire pit stop on lap 125 moved Mark from 15th up to fifth place and soon he was as high as third place. Another caution on lap 170 brought him in the pits for four fresh tires, which dropped him back to 18th despite the 14.32-second stop. He quickly moved up to the front on lap 207 when the leaders came in to pit under caution, but Mark stayed out to assume the lead. He commanded the race for 32 laps before moving into second place.

As the race progressed, the car became a little loose and Mark dropped back to 10th place by lap 350. The crew added one round of wedge and he returned to the race in 10th place. The wedge adjustment did not seem to help, so the crew took it back out during their final pit stop on lap 447. The 14.85-second stop sent Mark back out in 13th place with 47 laps to go when the race resumed. He fought for every position and was up to eighth place with 10 laps to go. He managed to gain one more spot in the final laps to finish the race in seventh place. The top-10 finish maintained his 11th place position in the Winston Cup point standings. He trails 10th place by 60 points.

"It was an incredibly good effort by the team," Mark said. "That makes three top-10's in a row and that was as fast a car as I've had here in a long time. We got behind after halfway, but got back fast at the end and managed to crawl our way back up. We had a very competitive run today and I'm real pleased with the whole Viagra® team's effort."

This Sunday the Winston Cup Series returns to Talladega Superspeedway for the final restrictor-plate race of the season.