Mark didn't think his Ford would perform
well, but it surprised him in the race's early stages as the veteran
led three times for 26 laps. But in the event's second half something
adversely afftected the car's performance and Mark said he couldn't
explain it. "We thought we were gonna be junk and we drove to the
front and led the thing, and were good even on equal tires," he said.
"Then we thought we were gonna be good and we were junk like
we were in practice. I can't explain it The car handled great.
I don't know how to make it better than the last set of tires
and we ran as good as we could, but I guess we finished about
eighth." That eighth-place finish, however, still allowed Mark
to gain one position in the point standings and move into
fourth.
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Coming off these two back-to-back top-10 finishes,
Mark is ready to take on the 1.5-mile Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
Mark won the inaugural Winston Cup race at the track in 1998 and
finished 10th last year after suffering ignition problems. "We had a great
race car last year," Mark said. "I don't think we could have caught Jeff
Burton, but we had a top-five car until we had ignition problems with
about 20 laps to go. I expect to be a contender to win this year since
this is a terrific track for us. It is one of the tracks that really suit
my driving style with the size and the banking. It is a great place for us
to be eligible for a $1 million bonus if we win. I stand a much better
chance there than I ever could at a place like Talladega."
Mark will drive JR-55 at Las Vegas on
Sunday. The car helped Mark to two top-five finishes at the end of the
1999 season -- fourth at Darlington in September and second at Phoenix.
"This is a different car than we took to Vegas last year," Mark said.
"Jimmy Fennig and the guys haven't given me a bad car yet, so I don't
expect this one to be anything less than spectacular."
Mark will start outside of Hank Parker Jr. in
the Sam's Town 300 at LVMS on Saturday. Mark won last year's race from
the pole in the Winn-Dixie Taurus. After Mark collected his 41st career
BGN win Saturday in Rockingham, the team took the car back to their
Mooresville, N.C., shop, replaced the nose, and loaded it on the
transporter to leave for Las Vegas Monday morning. "That is one of my
favorite cars," Mark said. "We raced that car a bunch last year and it
has been fantastic everywhere we've raced it."
In January, Mark filmed a
new TV commercial for Gatorade's "Is It In You?" advertising campaign.
Mark put in eight hours in order to make the 30-second spot. Much of the
time was spent creating the special effects of Martin "sweating" Gatorade
beads while driving his Valvoline/Cummins Taurus. To create the sweaty
look, a helmeted Mark laid back in a recliner while makeup artists
applied glycerin to his face and sprayed him with water. The glycerin
enhanced the water beads to look like sweat. An air compressor was used to
blow the water across Mark's face to simulate the wind in the race car.
The green tint of lime Gatorade was added to the water droplets during
post-production editing. "It is quite an honor to be the focus of my very
own Gatorade commercial," Mark said. "It was amazing how they made it
look so real. I enjoyed being able to lie down for a few hours since my
back was still a little sore, but I got a bit restless after a while." The
commercial aired during the Daytona and Rockingham races, and will
continue through the spring.
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