The 2006 Subway Fresh 500

Mark turned in one of his most dominating performances in recent memory during the first half of the Subway Fresh 500, leading 111 laps and dominating the field. At one point Mark led by as many as six seconds, before trouble in the pits dropped him to the back of the lead lap. Mark fought back to fourth place, before running out of gas with only one lap remaining.

“We had a really great car tonight and a car capable of winning the race,” said Mark. “We just let this one get away from us tonight, but we were still able to fight back to a decent finish. We had a car capable of a lot better than that, but we’ll have to take what we have and look to next week.”

Mark was fast from the green flag, starting 18th and needing only 17 laps to break into the top 10. By lap 47 Mark would break into the top five where he would run for the majority of the remainder of the race. He had powered his No. 6 AAA Ford Fusion into fourth place when caution was issued on lap 53. Mark came into the pits for four tires and fuel and returned to the field in second place after the AAA Crew registered a 13.98-second stop. The field went green on lap 57 and Mark needed only nine laps to take the lead away from Roush teammate Greg Biffle on lap 66,

Mark would lead the next 23 laps before caution was called on lap 89. Mark again brought his AAA Ford down pit road for four tires and fuel and returned in third when green flag racing resumed. He moved back into second on lap 104 and eventually retook the lead on lap 106. The race would embark on a long green-flag run with Mark holding the lead for the next 64 laps, building as much as a six-second lead on second place, before coming into the pits on lap 170 for a green-flag pit stop. Mark returned in 13th, but retook the lead on lap 178 once the field cycled through its stops. By lap 180 the veteran had again built his lead up to four seconds.

Caution was called for the fifth time of the evening on lap 199 with Mark still in control of the race. With the car solid, Mark opted for four tires and fuel with no changes as he brought his Ford Fusion down pit road on lap 200. A problem with the rear of the car during the stop, forced Mark to return to pit road on the next lap to have his lugnuts tightened. He returned to the field in 16th place, the last car on the lead lap, when green flag racing resumed on lap 203.

Mark wasted little time moving through the field, moving up to 12th by the time caution was issued on lap 212. The team pitted for four tires and fuel and after a 12.9 second stop, returned to green flag action in 11th position. He broke back into the top 10 on lap 233. On lap 244 he took over eighth position, before again breaking into the top-five on lap 297. He looked poised to run to another top-five finish, before radioing the team he was running out of fuel on lap 309, with only three laps remaining. He was able to coast around the track for the final lap and move to an 11th-place finish, the first car one lap down.

Mark is currently fourth in the Nextel Cup point standings, 66 points behind first place and 15 points out of fourth. The team returns to action next weekend at Talladega Superspeedway for the season’s second restrictor-plate race of the season. Mark has two wins and 21 top-10 finishes at the 2.66-mile superspeedway