The 2004 Subway 400

Mark and the No. 6 Viagra® (sildenafil citrate) Racing Team battled unlucky timing and lapped traffic for much of Sunday’s Running close together at the Rock

Subway 400. In the end Mark was still able to notch a respectable 12th-place finish, but Mark knew that if not for two ill-timed cautions and an accident on lap 262 the finish would have been much higher.

"Everything went wrong,” said Mark. “We lost our track position and then we got in a wreck. Then we fixed all of that and was fixing to rebound from that and then got caught on another caution."

“It looked like we had a top-10 just about wrapped up before we got caught up in another caution. We had a good car today and it was a solid performance by this Viagra? Racing Team. It’s just too bad that all of the breaks went against us today.”

Mark started the race 21st and had moved up to 18th when the day’s first caution was issued on lap 39. The team came into the pits for four tires and fuel, and a quick 14.01-second stop gained Mark six positions up to 12th place when the field went green.

Mark broke into the top 10 for the first time of the day on lap 69. By lap 108, Mark had moved into eighth place. With the car’s handling becoming loose, the team came into the pits on lap 131 for a scheduled green-flag pit stop. In a stroke of bad luck, caution was issued as Mark came into the pits. Mark was able to drive through the pits - without stopping - to preserve his status on the lead lap, but the No. 6 Ford lost valuable track position, dropping to 14th place in the transaction.

The loss in track position would turn out to haunt Mark and the team for much of the day. Another quick stop in the pits under caution (14.49 seconds) on lap 214 helped Mark move back into 10th place once the field went green. Mark was still running in 10th position and gaining ground when the No. 0 car of Ward Burton – running just in front of Mark - made contact with the No. 01 car of Joe Nemechek, The contact caused a chain reaction that would ultimately cause the No. 46 of Carl Long to flip several times along the back stretch going into turn three. Mark was able to avoid the worst part of the accident, but his No. 6 Viagra® Ford did sustain substantial damage to the front left fender.

The team came in for a series of pit stops under caution to repair the damage sustained in the wreck. When it was all said and done, Mark was still running on the lead lap but in 17th position when the field went green on lap 279. Again the No. 6 team had lost track position and Mark would have to fight his way back through the field.

The damage from the accident caused the car to ‘push terribly’, but Mark had still managed to work his way back to 13th place by lap 321. The team short pitted on lap 345 to take on four tires and make a track bar adjustment to help free up the car’s handling. The team reeled off another quick stop of 14.50-seconds, but yet another ill-timed caution just four laps later would catch Mark and 34 other cars a lap down. With only eight cars still on the lead lap, Mark would restart in 10th place with 30 laps remaining.

Mark lost two positions on the restart and he would go on to battle the race leaders in an attempt to gain his lap back. Mark would hold his position, but he would be unable to run down 11th position during the final laps, as he moved on to finish 12th. Teammate Matt Kenseth, who twice had narrowly escaped losing a lap in the pits, went on to win the race. Finishing just .010 seconds ahead of the No. 9 car in the fourth-closest race since NASCAR implemented the electronic timing and scoring system in 1992.

The day was not quite yet over for Mark once the checkered flag dropped, as NASCAR summoned Mark, crew chief Pat Tryson and team owner Jack Roush to the trailer after the race for a post-race discussion regarding allegations that Mark blocked the No. 9 and No. 42 cars in order to allow Kenseth to build a larger lead. An allegation that even Jamie McMurray (the driver of the No. 42 car) did not appear to believe. Mark, one of the most respected drivers on the circuit, not only vehemently denied the allegation, he was offended by it.

"When you double-file restart these things and you put the lap-down cars on the inside for the sake of a show, things like that happen,” said Mark. “I was on the lead lap all day and I restarted 15th but was 30th on the race track. I wrestled the last-lap cars all day. The No. 24, the No. 19 and the No. 6 were all racing. If the caution would have come out, one of those three would have gotten a lap back and would have been back in the race.”

“I'm just disappointed because I think that the people in this sport know Mark Clips Labonte while avoiding Carl Long

Mark Clips Labonte while avoiding Carl Long

that I have a lot of integrity. I watched it on the tape and I didn't see anything. I'm a big fan of these guys. I'm a big fan of Jamie McMurray. I don't care who wins that race. I wanted to win the race. I was racing and I wasn't in anybody's way. I never got in anybody's way.”

"I couldn't help it that the No. 9 and the No. 42 got side by side,” added Mark. “That wasn't of my doing. I never held the No. 9 up. I left him the outside when he was there and when he wasn't there I used the racetrack. This is rare. I couldn't believe it when they said that, but they're taking that real serious. I hate it, but, like I said before, I didn't cause those guys to get side by side. Once they got side-by-side I was going to be in somebody's way, but I never held the outside lane up - ever, ever, ever. I wouldn't do that.”

“We went up and met John Darby and Mike Helton and the guys wanted Mark and I to look at the video and see how it developed,” said Roush. “It was real clear from what Mark said he was doing and from what he did on the race track that he got out of the way as soon as the No. 9 got to him. It was unfortunate that the 9 and the 42 were racing side by side, but Mark pulled down - not off the race track - but pulled down out of the way of the 9 which was the first car that caught him.

“He was in line with the 9 and pulled down in such a way not to slow him down at all, but the 42 was impacted by the fact that there was a lead-lap down - who was Mark - that was down there. At the same time, you've got to realize that the 19 and the 24 were right behind the 42 and Mark was racing for position there. I feel bad for everybody that got their feelings hurt and this is one race in a 36-race schedule.”

“Whatever the rules are. Whatever the interpretation is, it's just fine. But for there to be a question whether Mark tried to benefit Matt; that is out of order. This is my 17th year with Mark and he doesn't block anybody or get in anybody's way and never has for all those years. For a question to be raised about whether he was intentionally in the way of somebody, Mark is a guy that's never in anybody's way."

Mark and the Viagra® Racing Team will return to action in two weeks at Las Vegas.