The 2003 Pepsi 400

Mark and the Viagra® Racing Team ran to a 20th -place finish in Saturday Mark at the 2003 Pepsi 400

night’s Pepsi 400 at Daytona International Speedway. The team fell victim to an untimely pit sequence that forced Mark to have to pit an extra time late in the race. Mark ran as high as fourth during the race, that saw Mark run inside the top 10 for much of the race.

“We had a pretty good car,” said Mark. “But we got on the wrong pit sequence and there just wasn’t enough cars that did the same thing we did. In the end, it forced us to pit one more time than some of the other cars in the race and that hurt us. I would however, like to congratulate Greg (Biffle) on his first victory in a Winston Cup race, I can’t think of a better race to do that.”

Mark started 33rd, but wasted little time moving his Viagra® Ford Taurus up the field. The veteran driver broke inside the field’s top 20 on just the second lap of the race. By lap five Mark was running in 15th position. Mark had moved up to 11th place when green flag pitting began on lap 35. Three laps later the team entered the pits to take on right-side tires, fuel and make adjustments to free up the car’s handling. Mark returned to the field in 10th position.

By lap 58, Mark had moved all the way to sixth place, where he was running when the day’s first caution was issued on lap 63. The team used the caution to come into the pits for four fresh tires, fuel, and an additional adjustment. Mark returned to the field in seventh when the field returned to green on lap 68. Five laps later the day’s second caution occurred.

Most of the field came into the pits for tires and fuel, but the No. 6 team along with a few other teams opted to stay out and gain track position. In the end, the decision would prove costly, as a lack of cautions down the stretch would allow for other teams to win the race on a different fuel mileage sequence.

Initially, the move paid off and Mark rocketed the car into fourth place by lap 84. Mark got shuffled out of the draft as the car began to tighten up, and fell back to as far as 14th position before working his way back up to 10th. At this point, the move not to pit on lap 75 began to hurt the team’s effort. Running in seventh position, Mark came into the pits on lap 104 for fuel.

With the team now on a different pit sequence than the majority of the field, several cars moved in front of the No. 6 and he returned to the field in 28th place on lap 106 after taking two tires, fuel, and making an air pressure adjustment to further free the car’s handling. The remainder of the field began pitting on lap 113 and Mark moved back up to 15th place on lap 117 when the majority of the field began to come into the pits for fuel. A few of those cars would be able to run the remainder of the race without having to come back into the pits for fuel; one of those cars, Roush teammate Greg Biffle, would go on to win the race.

Mark would move back up to as high as 10th place on lap 140 before having to come into the pits on lap 143 for fuel. Again he would lose position to all of the cars on the different pit cycle and he returned to the field in 22nd place on lap 144. He would use the remaining 16 laps of the race to fight his way into the top 20 for the 20th place finish.

The finish moved Mark into a tie for 11th place in the Winston Cup point standings, 49 points outside of 10th place. The team returns to action next week at Chicagoland Speedway for the Tropicana 400. Mark has finished inside the top 10 in both his races at Chicagoland, a sixth place finish in 2002 and a ninth place finish last year