The stoutest heart in American racing has been broken again. Yet, Mark, as he
has through all his career, stands manfully ready to pick up the pieces and
try again.Mark, 43, has lost more championships than most other drivers dream of approaching, finishing second in 1990, 1994, 1998 and 2002, and third in 1993, 1997 and 1999.
He lost this year's title chase by 38 points to Tony Stewart, and if you minus out the 25-point penalty deducted from his team's total for a marginal tech violation at Rockingham, he lost by just 13.
Even the hardened hearts of the press cracked a bit when Mark opened his post-season conference not with bitterness or disappointment, but with courage, grace, and gratitude.
"I guess there's a couple of things I really want to say," he began. "I never looked at this thing this year and allowed myself to think I would win it, and that's a good thing because I feel no letdown now.
"But I had so many people who wanted me to win it so bad that I almost got afraid they were going to be let down, or I was going to let them down.
"I guess what I want to say is thank you. Thank you to all the competitors who felt that way, and all the fans and all the people I know, I want to thank them. I gave it everything I had from January to the last lap today. I'm not disappointed in the outcome."
Mark, at 43, can see the end, and he came off a middling season last year that had people questioning his motivation and desire. We missed something big-time. Mark, the man, may be 43. The racer, the racer's heart that beats inside, has no age. It's as young as Richard Petty, as old as Ryan Newman.
Mark and crew started the season-ending Ford 400 terribly, wearing out a right-front tire (to the cords) by the first pit stops and needing six turns of wedge on the first two stops to get the apparatus in a straight line.
From there, Mark gained steadily, made top-10 with 80 laps to go, and on
tough-to-tame Homestead-Miami Speedway, raced like the devil to make fourth at
the finish. He nudged fading young Jimmie Johnson out of the way for sixth on
Lap 260, then went three-wide on a one-groove track for fourth near
the end."Did you see him go three-wide down there in Turn 2 in the closing laps?" said owner Jack Roush, who has shared Mark's disappointments for the past 15 years. "That's vintage Mark.
"There's a lot of time left in him. I think we've got five years left to pursue a championship with Mark. He's the equal of the younger guys, in my opinion, in the program. You've got old age and experience with young and enthusiasm. We've got quotients of that up to 100 points in all the quarters as far as I'm concerned."
People who don't compete don't understand. Mark lives to compete, so very few catch the tail of what he says. As at Charlotte in May (his only victory of 2002), he literally raced his *** off with a goal in sight. Yet, whether we see it or not, he does that every race, every minute.
This year, he bounced back from his most discouraging season, his first finish outside the top 10 since his rookie year, 1988, and came within an ace of the championship. That, he said, felt good.
"We had a chance, man," he said. "The last time I finished second, in '98, the championship was sewed up at Rockingham. We won seven races and were awesome. Jeff Gordon won 13 and just clobbered us.
"Man, we fought for this one, right down to the wire. I can't remember back in
1990, and I don't care to, but this may be the greatest battle myself and the
people around me ever fought. It's incredible."Just as important, in the competitive scheme, "We beat [Stewart] the last three races in a row, and I'm telling you, that's a tall order," Mark said.
Fortunately for all, the penalty at Rockingham became moot, and all could declare a championship honestly won.
"I think that was important," Mark said. "It would have been 13 points either way. I feel good about that. I feel like they beat us, they earned it, and I congratulate them.
"Second is never good, but I've had a great career, and I've done all I could do," he said, without an impeaching voice in the building.
"You can say what you want. We just didn't have enough points this year -- not in '98, not in '90. I've never scored enough points. I don't think I'm the greatest race car driver who ever lived, and I don't want any of you to write that about me.
"I do what I do, and I feel very fortunate. And when it's all said, I've got a lot of trophies, a lot more trophies than most. That's all I can do."
