The Mountain Dew Southern 500

MMark had a tough day at Darlington Raceway on Sunday, but he and the Mark Martin

Viagra® (sildenafil citrate) team never gave up all day and battled for position until the very end. Martin started the race in 13th place and the car was very loose. He had dropped back to 23rd place by the time the first caution came out on lap 56. Martin pitted for air pressure and wedge adjustments and gained three spots in the pits. He was 20th when the race resumed on lap 62, but he was still not satisfied with the car's handling. The team made more adjustments during the caution on lap 78. He gained another position with a quick 14.15-second pit stop and was 21st.

The crew made major adjustments to correct the loose handling on laps 139 and 140 when they added two spring rubbers to the right front and lowered the track bar. Since Martin was already at the tail of the lead lap cars, the extra stop did not hurt his track position. He was 26th by lap 150 and began to move up, but eventually the adjustments were too much and the car was too tight. The team changed the spring rubbers on lap 192, but again the car was very loose after the pit stop.

Martin continued to hang on at the end of the lead lap until lap 270 when Jeff Gordon finally put him one lap down. The car was still too loose, so the team made more adjustments on lap 280 under caution. He moved up from 26th to 22nd place and the car began to get better.

He spent much of the rest of the race as the first car one lap down. He was never able to make up his lap despite the five cautions in the final 60 laps of the race. He was able to avoid all of the accidents in front of him, including one on the final lap to finish in 20th place. Martin maintained his 12th place in the Winston Cup point standings.

"It was a pretty humiliating day, but I knew it was going to be before the race started," Martin said. "The thing that made it better was that everyone gave their all through the entire weekend. That's all we had and we'll try to do better next weekend at Richmond."

Next weekend the Winston Cup teams compete under the lights Saturday night at Richmond International Raceway.