Pennzoil 400

Some days it's better not to cross Mark Martin's path, but on Sunday after he earned a hard- and hotly-fought-out third place in the Pennzoil 400 presented by Discount Auto Parts at Homestead-Miami Speedway, Mark was fairly mellow. Mark and REicky Rudd

That's because the driver of the Valvoline/Cummins Ford had had a chance to cool off after leaving his car. Earlier in the race, Mark had to pass front-runner Ricky Rudd twice in a short stretch near the end of the 267-lap event. The two opponents and friends also traded some paint on both passes, which had some tongues buzzing in the Homestead garage.

Mark was fairly pacific about the deal following the race.

"I've never had a problem with Ricky Rudd and I wasn't about to have one with him today," Mark said. "Ricky and I get along real good, but at the time I was a little quicker than he was and I got under him. I had two wheels on the apron and I slid up six inches and I touched him in the quarter panel."

Mark tapped Rudd's No. 28 Texaco/Havoline Ford and got it a little out of shape before he made the pass. A short time later, Rudd ran up behind Mark accelerating through Turn 4 and solidly punted him in the rear, neatly moving him out of the way.

"Well, I guess if you ask Ricky I asked for it," Mark said. "You race hard and it's very close and very slick. I got under him and I touched him and he wiggled, so he didn't think that was right. So he blasted me in the back and made me earn it without touching him.

"I got a shot back for it, but that's OK. I just sat back and collected myself and worked my way back up to him and got by him without touching him. We couldn't win the race anyway -- but, of course, we race for every spot like it's the last lap of the Daytona 500 for the win. That's what we were doing out there is putting on a hard race for the fans."

Rudd's car developed a push after a late race run-in with Dale Earnhardt that relegated him to sixth, the final car on the lead lap behind the dominant victor, Tony Stewart.

"I guess Ricky has a little bit shorter fuse than I do -- he's had a history of retaliating," Mark said. "He should know that I wouldn't lay a fender on him to pass him. It was slick out there and I got inside him and I touched him. I don't have a problem with it because I know what his logic was. His logic was, 'Hey, you touched me and made me wiggle, that's not right, you're gonna have to earn it without doing that.'"

Rudd agreed with that assessment.

"It was a little more spirited than I wanted to," Rudd said of the phase of the race. "Mark got into me and turned me sideways coming off Turn 2 and, basically, I obliged the favor to him down in Turn 3 when I caught him and then we went back to racing."

All in all Mark was happy enough to notch his 13th top-5 finish of the year.

"I was pretty proud of the Valvoline team," he said. "They had good pit stops today. They gave me a reasonable race car. We had a pretty good running engine and a pretty good handling car and we were able to do the most with it I think we could. I think coming home in third was about all we could ever expect out of that piece, so I'm pretty pleased with it."

Despite that the physical fitness buff was still comprehensively sapped.

"It was pretty hot," Mark said. "I'm not really worn out, but I am hot. I do have a headache from the heat and the carbon monoxide. I'm not as physically tired as Bristol, but I'm as hot as just about anywhere we've been this year."


Congratulations, Tony Stewart, for the win at the 2000 NASCAR Winston Cup Pennzoil 400 in Homestead, FL.