The 2002 Pennsylvania 500

Mark and the No. 6 Viagra® Racing Team drove to a hard fought 13th-place The Blue Crew in action

finish Sunday in the often-delayed Pennsylvania 500 at Pocono. In a race marred by difficulty, caution was issued on just the first lap when the No. 1 and the No. 8 cars were involved in a wreck that destroyed a section of the infield fence. The race was red-flagged due to the accident after only five laps, as it took speedway workers over an hour to repair the heavy damage.

Mark moved up the field and was running in 11th position when caution was called on lap 23 due to persistent rainfall. The heavy rains increased and three laps later the race was red-flagged once again, and didn't restart until over two hours later.

The Viagra® Ford Taurus was running in 10th place when the field went green again on lap 32. Mark had pitted just prior to the rain stoppage, taking on two right tires, while several of the cars in the field took four fresh tires. The cars with the four tires were a little quicker and Mark dropped to 13th by lap 37, before settling back in and climbing back to 10th place on lap 60.

After pitting on lap 63 to take on four tires and fuel, Mark discovered that his car was experiencing problems with the alternator. The Viagra® Ford Taurus still managed to climb to ninth place by lap 69 and stay in the field's top 13 for the next several laps. A caution on lap 105 gave the crew a chance to come into the pits and change the car's battery using stops under caution on laps 107 and 108. Mark still stayed on the lead lap and returned to the field in 25th place when the field went green on lap 110.

Mark used the next several laps to move up the field, breaking back into the top 20 by lap 119 and into 15th place by the race's 143rd lap. With the sun starting to disappear into the horizon, NASCAR announced that the 200-lap race would be reduced to 175 laps.

With only 16 laps to go, the Viagra® Racing Team was running in 16th place, but Mark was able to use the final few laps to maneuver around several cars and gain three more positions; moving on to the 13th place finish.

"That was a hard-fought finish to a tough race," said Mark, moments after climbing from the car. "We just have to keep getting better and keep trying harder and see what we can come back with next week at Indy."

"I really thought after happy hour yesterday that our car would be stronger than that," said crew chief Ben Leslie. "Still Mark fought all day and the team fought all day and no one ever gave up. It's not a great finish, but the guys and Mark really worked hard to earn it."

With the finish Mark still stands at second in the Winston Cup point standings, 106 points behind the leader and 38 points ahead of third place.

The Viagra® Racing Team returns to action next week at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, when they take to the track for the ninth annual Brickyard 400.