The 2006 O'Reilly 300 Busch Race

An issue with the right front tire forced Mark to pit early on lap 124 to take fresh tires. Eleven laps later the Mark at the Oreilly 300 in TX.

day’s second caution was issued, trapping Mark’s No. 6 Pennzoil Platinum Ford Fusion two laps down. Mark, who had run inside the top 10 for most of the day, was then relegated to a 24th place finish in Saturday’s O’Reilly 300 Busch Series race at Texas Motor Speedway.

“It was a pretty tough day for the Pennzoil team,” said Mark after the race. “We had some issues with the car bottoming out early and then we pitted early because we thought we had a tire going down and that ended up catching us a couple of laps down and there was just really no way to recover from that.”

Mark was strong in qualifying on Thursday, earning a fourth-place starting spot for Saturday’s race. From the beginning, Mark had problems with his No. 6 Ford Fusion bottoming out and with the car handling loose off the corners and tight going into the corners. He fell back to eighth place by lap 51. He was running in ninth place when the day’s first caution was called on lap 82. The team came down pit road for four tires, fuel and aggressive changes to the chassis to help correct the car’s handling. The No. 6 Pennzoil Team delivered with a fast stop that gained Mark two positions to seventh when the green flag dropped on lap 87.

Mark was able to hold seventh for the next 19 laps before continuing problems with the car’s handling forced him back to 10th by lap 108. Mark felt the car was beginning to abuse the right-front tire, and by lap 123 he had fallen to 13th place. One lap later Mark and crew chief Mike Beam opted to pit rather than taking a chance on losing the race car with a blown tire.

Mark pitted for fresh tires and returned in 30th position. He had worked his way back to 27th by lap 134, but an untimely caution on the next lap would trap Mark two laps down and put an end to his chances for a strong finish.

Mark will return to action in the Busch Series in two weeks at Phoenix, driving the No. 6 Soaring Dreams Ford Fusion.