the top 10. He finished the season in the same spot he has so many times in his
career - just short of the Winston Cup championship.Mark rallied in the final laps to finish fourth in the Ford 400 on Sunday, but came up 38 points shy of Tony Stewart for the title.
Close but no championship. Again.
The 43-year-old driver finished second in the points race for the fourth time in his 20-year NASCAR career.
"You can beat me all you want to about running second, but I've had a great career," said Mark, who also was the runner-up in 1990, 1994 and 1998. "I've done all I can do. Say what you want. I didn't score enough points this year, I never scored enough points.
"I don't think I'm the greatest race car driver that every lived, and I don't want anybody to write that about me. I do what I do and I've been very fortunate. I've got a lot of respect, and I've got a lot of trophies - a lot more trophies than most people. I've done a lot of really neat things in my career, and that's all I can do."
Mark won just once this season, at Charlotte, N.C., in May, but finished 22 of 36 races in the top 10. It put him in the championship race but didn't make him a champion. And he retains the title of "best driver to never win a championship."
Stewart took an 89-point lead into the series finale Sunday and, starting from the sixth position, needed only to finish 22nd or higher to hold off Mark.
Mark started 34th in the 43-car field and spent much of the afternoon in the middle of the pack, avoiding wrecks and trying to make up ground, before moving into the 10th position on Lap 180 of the 267-lap race.
Mark was sixth on the final restart with 23 laps to go, then moved up two spots for his 12th top five finish of the season.
Stewart finished 18th, well behind Mark - yet so far ahead.
"I never really looked at this thing this year and allowed myself to think I would win, and that's a good thing because I feel no letdown now," Mark said. "I gave it everything I had from January testing to the last lap today, and I'm not disappointed with the outcome."
Mark's second-place points finish was his 12th in the last 15 years but first
since 1999. He was eighth in the standings in 2000 and 12th last season -
prompting many to think Mark was on the downside of his career.He erased all doubt this season. He reshaped his crew this offseason, getting 30-year-old crew chief Ben Leslie, and revitalized his career.
"There's a lot of time left for him," team owner Jack Roush said.
Mark also finished second in the points standings in 1990 (26 points behind Dale Earnhardt), 1994 (444 points behind Earnhardt) and 1998 (364 points behind Jeff Gordon). He might have won in 1990 had his team not been fined 46 driver points for an illegal carburetor spacer found on his Ford after a race at Richmond International Raceway.
The same thing almost happened this year.
Mark was docked 25 points for using an unapproved spring in the Nov. 3 race at Rockingham, N.C. His Roush team argued that the infraction was not intentional and that the penalty was too severe, but an appeals committee upheld the penalty.
It didn't matter, because Stewart finished more than 25 points ahead of Mark.
"I feel good about that," Mark said. "They beat us, they earned it and I congratulate them."
