The 2002 Pepsi 400

Mark ran to his seventh top-five finish of 2002, with a fifth place finish in Saturday's Pepsi 400. The finish marks Mark stands out

Mark's 12th top-10 finish in 17 races and his ninth top-10 finish in the last 12 races.

"We really fought all day," said Mark, moments after climbing out of the car. "It's really a great finish for us. The car wasn't all that great tonight, and we really didn't run that well.

"We were lucky enough to miss four really big wrecks that were happening all around us and we were able to get another top-five finish, so all in all it was a good race for the Viagra® Racing Team."

Persistent rains forced the cancellation of all but one of the weekend's practice sessions, and qualifying was postponed from Thursday night until Friday morning. Mark qualifying 18th for the season's third night race.

The race saw eight cautions on the night, with the first coming on just the second lap and the final caution coming with only three laps to go. Mark patiently worked his way up the field and broke into the field's top 13 by the 40th lap of the race, where he was running when the day's fifth caution was called on lap 59. Happy with the car's handling, Mark came into the pits for the second time of the day to take on fresh tires only. The Viagra® Racing Team sent Mark back out into the field in 12th position when the field went green on lap 64.

Mark broke into the field's top 10 just moments later, and was running in eighth position by lap 69; he would remain in the field's top 10 for the remaining 90 laps of the race. By lap 110, the Viagra® Ford Taurus was running in sixth place. Mark patiently worked his way around the track, shuffling between sixth and eighth position.

Lap 135 would see the day's worst wreck, a multi-car accident involving 15 cars. Mark narrowly avoided the accident, missing the collected carnage of race car's by inches, and escaping in sixth place when the field went green on lap 144.

After continuing to shuffle in and out of the draft, Mark was still running in sixth place when the ninth and final caution of the day was called with only three laps to go on lap 157. Mark raced back to the caution, passing the No. 8 car for the fifth position, as the race would finish under the yellow flag.

"I got in a bad spot a few laps before the end, but I was fortunate to enough to work my way out of it without loosing a lot of positions," added Mark. "The guys really did another wonderful job of working all throughout the race and never giving up. In the end it paid off with another strong finish."