The IROC Race Richmond September 2005

Mark made a $1 million move past Kurt Busch Mark edges Busch at wire in IROC Richmond Win

on the final two laps of Thursday night's International Race of Champions series event at Richmond International Raceway.

Mark made the outside line work to not only win the 90-lap race, his 13th career IROC race victory, but to also effectively clinch his fifth career title in the IROC series.

Mark leads Kurt Busch and Matt Kenseth, two of his Nextel Cup teammates at Roush Racing, by 27 points going into this year's final IROC event at Atlanta on Oct. 29.

The most points a driver can score in one IROC event is 29 points, and since last place pays three points, all Mark must do is start at Atlanta to earn this year's title and break a tie with Dale Earnhardt for the most IROC championships.

"It's pretty cool to have everybody fooled like that," Mark said. "I have been really lucky, I'm not that good. When they draw the cars it seems like I am always getting lucky and getting good cars."

Luck might be something of a factor, but there was a lot of driving ability involved in the final two laps Thursday night.

Busch had led virtually all the way, but Mark had moved up from the 12th and final starting spot to get second on the restart following a mandatory caution after 60 laps.

Mark stalked Busch over the final 15 laps, closing to his rear bumper before a series of late cautions gave Mark several chances to size up Busch on double-file restarts.

When Steve Kinser spun on Lap 66, Mark went into Turns 1 and 2 alongside Busch. Knowing that a second-place finish would do him nearly as much good as a win in the overall picture, Mark elected to get back in line behind Busch.

But one lap later, Martin Truex Jr. and Sebastien Bourdais got together in Turn 4. Bourdais, who came into the race second in the overall standings, got into the pit road wall and was knocked out of the race, furthering Mark's potential for points gain.

On the final restart with two laps to go, Mark decided he'd be better off staying alongside Busch than trying to get back into line in front of third-place Buddy Rice.

At the white flag, he and Busch were even according to the electronic scoring system. Busch inched ahead in Turns 1 and 2, but couldn't clear Mark. Mark got a great run off Turn 2 and was just ahead going into Turns 3 and 4. Busch fought back on the low side off the final turn, but Mark was ahead by 21-thousandths of a second at the checkered flag.

"I just had to go," Mark said. "I can't believe I pulled it off. Kurt lacked about an inch of getting it done. If the start-finish line had been a foot further he'd have been ahead."

One of the first people Busch saw after the finish was Ricky Craven, with whom Busch had a memorable last lap battle for a victory at Darlington, S.C. in 2003.

"It was like the ghost of racing past," Busch said. "I knew it was going to come down to that. ... I can't believe I lost, but Mark is the guy to beat when you're racing IROC."

Mark, who won this year's first IROC race at Daytona and finished second to Bourdais at Texas, said his success in this series is "the highlight of my career."

"That's cool," Mark said when told that all he needs to do to earn a fifth title is to start at Atlanta. "And I WILL start that race."