The 2005 Sharpie 500 at Bristol

Mark and the Viagra® (sildenafil citrate) Racing team survived 500 laps at Mark at Night Bristol 2005

the world’s fastest half-mile speedway on Saturday and left Bristol, Tenn. still in fifth place in the Nextel Cup point standings. While the team did not get the finish they had hoped for, Mark was able to avoid all of the race’s 15 cautions and with two races left before the ‘cut-off point’ he was able to once again solidify his chances of securing a place in the ‘Chase’ for the Nextel Cup.

"We had a real good car and we did what we needed to do,” said Mark. “Even with the pit stop; we're all a team and we're all in this together. That's all we needed to do. Sure, it would have been nice to finish up in the top 10 where we belonged and really where we ran all night, but we just had one little slip-up and it didn't cost us that much. We got done what we needed to get done."

Mark had a fast car from the start, starting 24 th and driving all the way to 14 th by lap 59. Mark drove his No. 6 Viagra® Ford into the field’s top 10 for the first time on lap 142, by lap 189 he had moved all the way up to eighth. He reached his top position of the night on lap 309 when he moved into seventh place, but the car would eventually get ‘loose’ and he fell back to 12 th where he was running on lap 373 when the day’s 12 caution was issued. The team came into the pits for four tires, fuel and a wedge adjustment to correct the car’s handling, but Mark got blocked in the pits and lost two more positions to 14th.

He was still running in 14 th when caution 13 was called on lap 417. The Mark at Night Bristol 2005

team came down pit road one lap later for four more tires and fuel, but they committed a costly mistake when the jack dropped early and Mark had to return to the pits a lap later to have the lug nuts on this left-rear tire tightened. The mishap would drop Mark all the way back to 24 th, when the field resumed green-flag racing on lap 424 with only 76 laps remaining.

True to form the team would continue to fight with Mark picking up six spots on the final 28 laps of the race to bring home the 16 th-place run and turn in what would be a good night in the points for Mark and the team.

With only two races remaining Mark is currently 226 points ahead of 11th place Matt Kenseth. He’s 165 points ahead of eight-place Carl Edwards. Mark joins Roush teammates Greg Biffle (3 rd), Kurt Busch (7 th), Carl Edwards (8 th) and Matt Kenseth (11 th) in the top-11 of the Nextel Cup standings. After 24 races, he trails first place by 396 points and he is 125 points behind third place Rusty Wallace.