too well how good a race car he had at Darlington Raceway.And his career has taught him how painful it is for potential race winners to fall short.
But Sunday afternoon he refused to lampoon his pit crew for the pit stop error with 55 laps to go when he was running in second place.
A problem getting all the lug nuts on his left front wheel forced Mark to pit a second time and restart as the final car on the lead lap with 52 laps left. He struggled early in the last run but arguably had the best car on the track at the end.
Problem was, it was too far to go and not enough time to get there. Mark led 71 laps, more than three times as many as he had led all season, but ended up with less than what he'd hoped for.
"I was happy about the way we ran," Mark said. "Not everything always goes just right every time. Obviously it (pit miscue) was a little bit of a disappointment for everyone on the Viagra team.
"They really had that Taurus hooked up today and gave us such great pit stops all year. Some days you're going to win 'em in the pits and some days you're going to have problems on pit road."
After an engine failure at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Mark fell out of the top 10 in the standings for the first time in 37 races. Sunday's effort gained Mark nine spots in the Winston Cup standings, back to 16th.
"We had a great car and a great opportunity and I told them (crew), 'If you can give me cars like this we'll win a lot of races,'" Mark said. "The only problem we'll run into is, if we only have a car like this once a year we better make it count.
"But I think these guys can give me cars like that pretty often and if they do that we'll win our share.
"They don't have to run that good every week -- they don't have to run that good to win. But if everything goes your way they've got to be pretty competitive and our car was spectacular today."
Mark was sure of one thing -- that it would be hard to support taking a race away from Darlington Raceway.
"That's racing at Darlington," Mark said of the slam-bang finish. "I think it was a surprise the way the race came down and I think the fans appreciate that.
"It looked like the strongest cars in the race had some problems and it came down to some guys fighting tooth and nail for it and that's what it's all about."
