2000 Monte Carlo 400

Mark started Saturday night's race in 10th place. The Valvoline/Cummins Taurus was very loose early in the race, so the crew used the first stop on lap 33 to add some wedge to the car. Mark returned to the race in seventh place. The car was still loose off the corners, but was now tight in the middle of the corners. He dropped back to 12th place until the next pit stop on lap 105 when the crew made an air pressure adjustment to help the car.

When the race resumed on lap 112, the car was very loose which caused Mark to fall back to 16th place just to keep the car under control. The crew made another air pressure adjustment on lap 185 and Mark returned to the race in 11th place. Now the car was too tight, and Mark would not see another caution for 127 laps. During this time, Mark lost one lap to the leader, Steve Park. He pitted under green on lap 294 for more adjustments to free up the car. This time the adjustments helped, but it was still not enough. Luckily, the caution came out on lap 318 when Rusty Wallace's engine blew. Mark was ahead of the leader at the time and was able to get his lap back.

With fresh tires and more adjustments, Mark was 10th when the race restarted on lap 323. The car was still tight, but Mark was able to maintain 10th place until the next pit stop. He gained two positions in the pits on lap 355 with a 15.62-second stop and restarted in seventh place. The car was a bit loose, but Mark figured he could hold on to seventh place for the final 39 laps.

On lap 381, there was another caution. The team planned to stay out, but Mark made the call to pit for tires and one round of wedge. The leaders stayed out, but everyone behind Mark followed him into the pits. He returned to the track in seventh place after a 15.31-second stop and made a charge to the front. In the final 14 laps of the race, Mark passed Bill Elliott, Tony Stewart, Jeff Burton and Steve Park to finish the race in third place. The strong finish moved him back up to eighth place in the Winston Cup point standings.

Mark in car

"We were off on handling all night until the final run," Mark said. "If there would have been about eight more laps, we could have won that race. The car was just awesome at the end and I could have caught Dale Earnhardt and Jeff Gordon. Our pit stops got better all night. Since we have two new guys going over the wall it will take some time for them to get used to working together, but the last two stops were great. Hopefully we can keep moving up in the points to at least get to sixth before the end of the season."

Next weekend the Winston Cup teams return to New Hampshire International Speedway. Sunday's race will be the first time teams will run one-inch restrictor plates at the track. NASCAR announced the safety change on Saturday in an attempt to slow the cars down after the Adam Petty and Kenny Irwin tragedies earlier this year.


Congratulations, Jeff Gordon, for the win at the 2000 NASCAR Winston Cup Monte Carlo 400 in Richmond, Va.