The 2003 Pontiac Excitement 400

"It wasn’t easy, we must have passed 60 cars tonight,” said Mark as he climbed out of his No. 6 Viagra The Viagra 6 Car

(sildenafil citrate) Ford just moments after running to a well-fought fifth-place finish in Saturday night’s Pontiac Excitement 400 at the Richmond International Raceway.

Mark’s statistic may not have been that far off, as Mark and the No. 6 race team battled numerous setbacks during Saturday’s first night race of the season. In a race plagued by a record 15 cautions and the constant threat of rain, Mark started 30th after the team struggled with the car’s speed for the great majority of the weekend.

Mark had worked his way all the way up the field to 14th position by lap 108 when he began to experience severe problems with the car’s power steering. Mark was forced to maneuver the car around the track for the next several laps until caution was called on lap 141 giving the team a chance to repair the car’s problems. The team came into the pits several times during the caution to fix the steering problem, tighten up the car and add fuel and four tires. When the field went green again on lap 157, Mark was back in 28th position.

Once again Mark began to patiently work his way up the field and was running in 16th position when the day’s fourth caution was called on lap 209 for rainfall. With the threat of continuing rainfall, the majority of the teams decided not to pit. Mark and the No. 6 team decided to come into the pits for tires and fuel and returned to the field in 19th position when the field went green on lap 218.

The gamble paid off as caution was again called on lap 223 with Mark running in 18th position. The cars that did not pit during the caution for rain were forced to come into the pits for fuel and Mark moved up to second position when the field went green on lap 230. Mark battled Jeff Gordon for the next several laps, but twice cautions prevented the No. 6 from overtaking the No. 24 car of Gordon.

Mark finally passed Gordon on lap 260 to take the lead just prior to the day’s seventh caution. Mark would lead for the next 10 laps. Caution was again called on lap 267 and during the caution laps Mark and the team discovered that the rear left tire of the car was losing air. The team was forced to pit under caution on lap 270 to change the tire and Mark found himself back in 23rd place when the field went green on lap 277.

Once again Mark would be forced to work his way up the field. The veteran driver went to work, breaking back inside the top 20 on lap 285. By lap 297 Mark was running in 16th place when the day’s ninth caution was called. The team came into the pits and decided to take right side tires only to gain track position and Mark was running in seventh place then the field went green on lap 303.

Battling cars and cautions, Mark had moved into fifth place by lap 362 and was moving in to pass the 31 car for fourth position when caution was called again with just 38 laps remaining in the race. The remainder of the race would be plagued by cautions, thus limiting any ability to gain position.

Finally, after the day’s final caution on lap 389, heavy rain set in forcing NASCAR to call the race with seven laps remaining. Mark would finish fifth, joining three of his Roush teammates in the top 10. The finish marked Mark’s fifth top-10 finish of 2003 and moved Mark up to 12th place in the Winston Cup points race, just 17 points outside of the top 10.

"We had a really, really good car, but we had a lot of problems,” said Mark. “We had to go to the back. We started in the back, and then we had a bearing seize up in the firewall, we had to fix that - lucky that we got that fixed.

“It was a great effort by the team. And then we had a flat tire, and dropped us all the way to the end of the line. So, the last pit stop we only took two tires to get some track position. You know, that handicapped us a little bit. We had such a great race car we could stay right with them there. It was good run."

The team will take next week off for Mother’s Day, before returning to action the following week for The Winston. NASCAR’s all-star event held at Lowe’s Motor Speedway.