The 2006 Samsung/Radio Shack 500

Mark and the No. 6 AAA Racing Team ran to their fifth top-10 finish of 2006, with a ninth-place run in the Samsung Mark in Texas April 2006

500 on Sunday at Texas Motor Speedway. In a weekend where Mark qualified third, was the fastest car in Saturday’s final practice session and took the race lead on lap one, Mark ran in the top-10 for the majority of the day, finishing the weekend off with a top-10 finish and a solid day in the points; cutting the margin between Mark and first place to only 46 points.

“We were a little off,” said Mark. “We had a good car, we just didn’t have it set up as well as some of the others, but the potential was there. I think we know what we would do if we had to do it over again, but that setup ran second in the night race here, but it just didn’t seem to work as good in the daytime.

“Everybody did what they needed to do and we put up a good performance, but we should have got more out of our car than that.”

Mark started third and took the lead on lap one, leading the race’s first 11 laps before giving up the lead to Greg Biffle on lap 12. The car started strong, but the handling would become too tight for Mark. He would run the next 36 laps in second before dropping to third on lap 49. Mark was still running in third place when the day’s first caution was called on lap 64. By that point, the car’s handling had become very ‘loose’, and crew chief Pat Tryson brought Mark down pit road for four tires, fuel and a chassis adjustment. A few cars stayed out or opted for two tires only, and Mark returned to the field in eighth place when green-flag racing resumed on lap 68.

The car’s setup failed to react to the adjustment, and Mark dropped back to 10th by lap 75. The team came into the pits again under caution on lap 83, after teammate Greg Biffle got spun out into the wall. A lightning fast stop of 12.75 seconds advanced Mark three spots to seventh when he returned to the field. Again the car started fast, but would become too tight in the handling, and Mark dropped back to ninth by lap 102.

The veteran was back in eighth place when the day’s third caution was issued on lap 146. The team would pit again, but a problem with the rear tires would cost the team valuable time in the pits and several positions, as Mark would drop back to 16th position when the race went green on lap 150. Mark struggled with lap traffic, advancing one position by the time caution was called for the fourth time of the day on lap 159. This time in a move to reclaim its lost pit position, the team would take two tires only, returning to the field in fourth place when green-flag racing resumed.

The old tires would eventually give, with Mark dropping back to ninth place by the time caution was called again on lap 189, but Tryson’s move had netted Mark six spots by the time the team pitted again on lap 190; Mark would run almost the remainder of the race in the field’s top 10. Another quick stop of 12.6-seconds moved Mark up to seventh when the field went green on lap 195.

As the day progressed the car became tighter and tighter, especially over the day’s longest green flag run from lap 263 to lap 312, with Mark dropping back to 10th place by the time the race’s ninth caution was issued on lap 312. Mark restarted in eighth place after a 13.57-second stop, as the race went green with only 20 laps remaining.

Mark would spend the remainder of the race fighting vigorously for his spot in the field’s top 10, holding off a charging Bobby Labonte for the final three laps of the race to preserve the ninth-place finish. Mark is now tied for third in the Nextel Cup point standings, just 46 points out of first and 31 points behind second. Mark has now finished inside the top-15 in 11 straight races dating back to 2005.

The team will be off next weekend for Easter, before returning to action in two weeks at Phoenix for the series’ first night race of the season.