The 2003 Mountain Dew Southern 500 at Darlington

Mark and the No. 6 Viagra® (sildenafil citrate) Racing Team had a strong car all Mark and Carl Edwards at Darlington

weekend at Darlington, qualifying seventh and running inside the top 10 during both practice sessions on Saturday. In fact Mark looked so strong during the weekend that rumor had it that the lead singer for the popular rock band Smashmouth, who performed live before Sunday's race, had predicted Mark to win the historic event. However Mark's hopes and his Ford Taurus were both quickly 'smashed' in the mouth, as he was caught up in an accident on just the 13th lap of the race that put an end to what looked like a promising day for the No. 6 team.

After the day's first caution on lap five, the team came into the pits for four fresh tires and fuel. As the race went green on lap 13, the cars ahead of Mark started checking up. Mark, who was running 10th at the time found himself caught up in a chain reaction that saw his No. 6 Ford Taurus collide with the No. 24 car, causing substantial damage. Mark continued to stay our for the next few laps, but eventually had to come behind the wall on lap 20 for repairs to the car. The team quickly went to work on repairing the damaged front end, but by the time Mark returned to the race he was 62 laps down and running in 38th place.

"I just don't know how to explain this type of luck," said Mark after the race. "I don't know what we did to anger the 'Race Gods', but we just can't buy a break. The team did a real good job this week, they gave me a good car, but once again we didn't get a chance to show that out on the track.

"I'm not even sure what happened," added Mark. "Someone checked up in front and it just all started from there. We just happened to come out on the worst end of it. We'll just have to go back to work and see what we can do next week."

Mark and the Viagra Team hung tough and Mark, though his car had been damaged, was able to run times as fast as the race's leaders, while often passing cars that were on the lead lap. In the end, Mark gained five positions and finished the race in 33rd position.

The team returns to action this Saturday night at Richmond, where Mark finished 5th earlier this season.