The 2005 Pocono 500

The prospects looked good late for Mark and the Viagra® (sildenafil citrate) Racing Team to earn their first victory Mark chases Carl Edwards at Pocono

at Pocono. Mark had exhibited one of the strongest cars in the field and found himself sitting in third position and the only car on fresh tires as the field prepared for a green-white-checkered finish. Mark made his move early, pulling up even with the second place No. 25 car of Brian Vickers before the cars entered turn one, but his momentum was suddenly halted when he lost his right-rear tire. The back end of the car skidded sideways, but Mark was able to save the car. Seconds later caution was issued for an unrelated accident in the back of the field and Mark was able to hang on to seventh.

“I was going take a run at them,” said Mark. “I had newer tires than the first two and we were sitting in third, but when I went down there in the corner and stepped on the gas to get a run the right rear went down. I guess we were lucky that the caution did come out because we were able to finish up with a flat tire."

Mark had been running in a solid third place when the day’s seventh and final caution was issued with only six laps remaining on lap 194. It took several caution laps to clean up from accident, so the race had to be finished under a three lap green-white-checkered. Mark had taken four tires during his last pit stop on lap 176, while the remainder of the cars around him, including teammate and eventual race winner Carl Edwards, had taken only two. As the race prepared to go green, Mark’s chances at his first career win at Pocono looked solid, before the flat tire.

“I guess we were unlucky that the caution came out and lucky that it did because we were about to get swallowed up,” added Mark. Still we'll take a top five. It was a great run for the Viagra® Team. They did a great job all day and we were able to have a really strong run and a good finish."

Mark started the race 13th and with the car handling ‘tight’ in traffic, he quickly dropped back to 19th by lap four. Eventually the car came around by lap 23 Mark had powered the Viagra® Ford inside the top 10 – with the exception of pit sequence he would never run outside the top 10 again. Mark continued to climb up the field, breaking into top five just three laps short of the half-way mark on lap 97. Mark was still running fifth when the day’s fifth caution was called on lap 116. The team came in for four tires, fuel and a wedge adjustment and after the day’s fastest stop of 13.4 seconds, he returned to the field in third place when the field went green on lap 122.

Mark pitted again after caution number six on lap 150 and again returned to Mark in the pits at Pocono

the field in third place. The field would then embark on a long green-flag run with Mark in third place, but several seconds behind the leader. Crew chief Pat Tryson opted to pit early under green on lap 176, taking four tires and fuel. The gamble paid off, with Mark eventually gaining valuable time on first and second place as the field cycled through its stops. The leaders took two tires to stay in front, but the caution on lap 194 would set up the three-lap shootout, where Mark’s teammate Carl Edwards went on to win the race.

“That was really awesome for Carl,” said Mark. “We just couldn’t really run with those guys all day. We had better tires there at the end and we were going to go for it, but it just didn’t work out that way.”

Originally NASCAR scored Mark with a fifth-place finish, but upon further review of a video replay dropped the team’s finish back to seventh. Still Mark gained one position up to fifth place in the Nextel Cup point race, just 25 points behind fourth. Mark is currently 328 points behind the leader, as the team heads into Michigan where they posted a second place finish last fall.