The 2003 Samsung/Radio Shack 500

Mark and the Viagra® (sildenafil citrate) Racing Team struggled for much of the weekend leading up to Sunday's Samsung/Radio Mark in a line

Shack 500. Mark and crew chief Ben Leslie worked way past garage hours and into the late evening on Saturday night, in search of a remedy to provide needed speed to the No. 6 Viagra® Ford Taurus. "Let me tell you, this car was a piece of junk yesterday," said Mark after the race. "But Ben Leslie and Bob Osborne (team engineer) and myself, we all got together and changed everything on it and it was really awesome today."

The fruit of their labor provided Mark with one of - if not the- fastest cars in Sunday's race. A car that, combined with Mark's mastery of the 1-5 mile quad oval, propelled the Viagra® Racing Team to their third top-five finish of 2003 and their fourth top-10 finish in only seven races.

"We were just short some track position in the end," said Mark. "I don't know that we could have beaten the No. 12 car, but there wasn't anybody else in the field that we couldn't handle.

"We were catching everyone else in the field, we had some great runs. We had to pass more cars out here than anyone else. I thought yesterday that we were going to run 30th, so this really feels great."

Mark was hot out of the gate, and despite a 32nd-place start, the veteran driver had cracked the field's top-20 by lap 43, when he came into the pits for the first time to help 'free' the car, which had begun to tighten up during the long green-flag run.

After a 15.54 second stop to take four tires and make a wedge adjustment, Mark returned to the field in 21st place and once the field went green on lap 49, Mark began to embark on an upward movement that would see the Viagra® Ford Taurus break inside the field's top 10 on lap 83. The Viagra® Ford, which had struggled heavily in Saturday's practice, was running the fastest times of any car on the track. Mark had moved up to sixth place by lap 155 when the day's fourth caution was called.

Mark passed both the No. 38 car of Elliot Sadler and the No. 48 car of Jimmie Johnson on lap 166 to move into fourth place, breaking into the field's top-five for the first time of the race. Continuing to blaze up the field, Mark's chances for a top-five finish looked certain and victory lane was glimmering in the distance.

However, the road to Sunday's finish line would not come that easy. Mark was running in sixth-place when he came into the pits for a planned green-flag stop to take on fuel and tires on lap 221. As the remainder of the field cycled through their stops, the day's seventh caution was called on lap 226. Everyone in the field had not pitted and Mark had to restart the race on the tail end of the lead lap once the field went green on lap 232.

Mark was able to stay on the lead lap, fending off leader and eventual race-winner Ryan Newman for three laps until the day's seventh caution was called on lap 235. The caution aided Mark in his quest to stay on the lead lap, but Mark's car sustained light damage to the front end. The team came into the pits for series of stops to take on fuel, add fresh tires and tape up the damaged front end.

Mark was running in 16th place when the field went green on lap 239. The race saw two more cautions in the next 14 laps and Mark was running in 14th place when the field went green on lap 254. With 89 laps remaining, Mark would have to slice and dice his way back towards the front, despite the fact his car had been damaged.

True to form, Mark and the No. 6 team did not fold. Instead, Mark mounted yet another charge towards the front. Mark passed teammate Kurt Busch on lap 281 to break back into the field's top10, just prior to the day's 10th and final caution on lap 282. Quick work in the pits saw the Viagra® Racing Team take on four tires and fuel in 14.86 seconds and Mark returned to the field in ninth place once the field went green on lap 288, with only 46 laps remaining in the race.

Mark in a pack at Texas

However, Mark wasn't finished. By lap 300 he was running in seventh place. Four laps later he moved into sixth place with just 30 laps to go. On lap 326 Mark passed Jimmie Johnson to claim fifth place, where he would eventually finish the race for his third top-five finish in only seven races in 2003.

"It's great to run fifth," especially when you have so much trouble," added Mark. "But we had a car that was even better than that."

With the win Mark moved up to 13th in the Winston Cup point standings, only 29 points outside of 10th place and 317 points behind points leader Matt Kenseth.

Mark and the No. 6 Viagra® Racing Team will take to the track again next week at Talladega for the second of four restrictor-plate races this season. Mark finished fourth at the Daytona 500 in the season's first restrictor plate race.