Mark came close to capturing his second
win of the day, but not quite close enough. The Rousch Racing
stalwart cruised to victory in the rain-delayed Hardee's 250 Busch
Series event that didn't end until about 12:30 in the morning of
the Pontiac Excitement 400. Almost 19 hours later - with practice
and qualifying sandwiched in-between - Mark was right back in action.
Mark led five times for a total of 74 laps, but finished second.
The last four times a driver has swept both ends of a Winston Cup/Busch Series
weekend, it's been Mark in victory lane.
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It just wasn't to be this time. Close,
but not quite good enough Still, he moved up a notch in the Winston
Cup standings to fourth, 155 points behind leader Dale Jarrett.
Jarrett went to Mark's outside in turn three on lap 368, and cleared
his fellow Ford driver in turn two the next time around. The showing
was Mark's seventh top-five finish this season, and third in a row
at Richmond.
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"Our car handled excellent tonught."
Mark said. "I felt we did a very poor job in Texas with managing
the tire problems that they had there, and became a victim. I didn't
want to be a victim tonight at any cost, so we made sure that we did
the best we could with that and let it all hang out at the end. We
just weren't good enough to beat the 88(Jarrett)."
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According to Mark, there were any number
of factors leading to the right front tire problems that several teams
experienced. "The tires were blistering," Mark said.
"The sealer was getting such a bite on those tires. We came up and
tested with the Busch car, and we saw that with the Busch cars in the
test. Burton and I both did that. If your car wasn't handling
really perfect, it would abuse one particular tire.
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"If it was pushing, it would obviously abuse the
right front, have it blister and go down. It was a case of the
sealer having so much grip versus not having the sealer on. That
sealer was awesome. I mean it was really good stuff."
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Apparently, it was a little too good.
Three of the race's nine leaders saw tire problems drop them out of
contention, including Jeff Gordon, John Andretti and Mike skinner.
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"It's always something... air pressure,
camber, whatever." Mark continued. "These cars are made to race. we have
to race'em hard. We have to run'em hard. You have to run the air
pressure low. You have to run a lot of camber. That's not what hurt
the tires.
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What hurt the tires was the tire was
designed for the race track without this sealer on it, and the sealer
was so good this time, that it actually put a lot more heat than normal
into the tires." So just how did he manage his tire wear?
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"Run the car loose, and drive it slow." Mark
explained, leaving it at that. Although he didn't have any tire trouble,
Mark was still lucky to be in position to fight for the win late
in the race. Steve Park crashed in turn four to bring out the sixth
of the event's eight cautions, and on the lap-249 restart, Mark
was second behind Skinner.
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The next time around, however, Mark
and Ernie Irvan made contact. Mark wobbled, and dropped back through
the pack until he was able to regain control and get back in line.
"I didn't give Ernie enough room." Mark admitted. "He was a lap down, and I went into
the turn. I was needing to clear him and get on with the business
of racing for the lead, and in the middle of all that, I didn't leave
him enough room. That's what really happened."
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As for his late-night shenanigans,
Mark was more than ready to leave the media center following
his post-race interviews to go get some sleep. "I got to bed at
1:30 AM, went sleep at 2:30 AM and I couldn't sleep any longer
after 7:30 AM this morning, so I'm looking forward to getting out
of here." Mark said.
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After answering a few more questions,
Mark did just that. He got out of there.
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