Pontiac Excitement 400

Mark claimed his second pole of the season on Friday afternoon at Mark was on the pole at Richmond for the Pontiac Excitement 400

Richmond International Raceway. After he turned a lap of 124.613 mph in his Viagra® (sildenafil citrate) Taurus, the team's goal was to finish Saturday's race where they started it - in first place.

As the race began Saturday night, Mark led the first three laps to earn his five bonus points. He is currently the only driver in the Winston Cup series to lead at least one lap in every race this season. After seven laps, Mark told the crew that the car was too tight. He settled into third place for the first 100 laps until the team could make an air pressure adjustment during the first green flag pit stop on lap 111.

The car was still tight, but Mark continued to run in the top-five and his lap times were very close to the leader, Rusty Wallace. The team made another air pressure adjustment to loosen the car under caution on lap 199. Mark gained two positions in the pits and was third when the race resumed on lap 216.

There were two more cautions in the next 20 laps so Mark was unable to tell if the adjustments worked. Once he was able to have a long run, Mark determined that the car was too loose and he told the team to put the air pressure back to what it was before the pit stop. He dropped back to 13th place as he fought to keep the car under control. On lap 282, Mark was able to pit and the team gave him fresh tires with adjusted air pressures. Another caution came out 14 laps later, so he decided to pit again for new tires. The crew had a great 14.81-second pit stop and Mark returned to the track in 13th place.

It looked as if the last 96 laps of the race would be run under green. Mark fought his way up to 12th place and was closing in on 11th place when Dave Blaney hit the wall on lap 396. Since there was only four laps to go, NASCAR did not want the race to end under caution. Instead they stopped the race until the track was clean. With three laps to go, the Viagra® team decided to pit one more time hoping fresher tires might give them an advantage for the two-lap shootout to end the race. The crew had another great 14.60-second pit stop and Mark returned to the track in 13th place. NASCAR started the race with two laps to go which did not give Mark enough time to gain any more positions. He finished the race in 13th place while Tony Stewart claimed his first win of the season. The finish moved Mark back up to 21st in the point standings.

"We were running really well in the beginning of the race," Mark said. "Then I'm not sure what happened to the car. The car was much better on long runs than it was during all of the short spurts we had between cautions. We brought a brand new car and it was pretty fast early in the race. As the sealer began to wear off the track, it changed the way the car handled. It felt good to run up front at the start. I just wish we could have finished there."

"The Viagra® Taurus ran well in practice and qualified on the pole," Jack Roush said. "It did everything you could ask for it to do. The team thought it would be really good when the race started given the way the last practice went on Friday. Conditions were just a little different and they had trouble getting it exactly right. They made some progress with it, but it wasn't exactly what they were looking for.

"The pit crew did a great job all night and kept Mark in contention on pit road," Roush continued. "We think we can build on that on tracks like Richmond and do well with a car like this one."

The Winston Cup teams will take this weekend off to celebrate Mother's Day and then return for another night race at Lowe's Motor Speedway in Charlotte, N.C., for the non-points all-star race "The Winston" on Saturday night, May 19.