Mark, still flat on his
back and under strict doctor's orders, nevertheless
sounded upbeat and on schedule, three weeks after
surgery to fuse deteriorating vertebrae in his lower
back. He's bored senseless, he said Tuesday, but he
believes the surgery worked as planned, and he sounded
more relaxed than he has in months.
"I'm just laying on the couch here in my office,"
Mark said by phone from Daytona Beach. "I've got a
notebook pad and my phone. I've got my address book and
my calendar in my hand, laying on my couch. My office
is about a half a mile from my house, but at least when
I'm laying around here, I feel like I'm doing something."
As planned, Mark expects to
return to racing exactly on Feb. 10, the day work begins
on the Daytona 500 and the 2000 NASCAR season. He says
it's early to know for sure, but his doctors have told
him he'll likely have to be lifted in and out of the car,
at least through the first couple weeks of the season.
"They're not concerned about me being in the seat
-- the seat's almost like a body cast," Mark said.
"It's just [that] getting in and out requires a certain
strain and certain body angle and pull."
|
|
|
|
Mark, who turns 41 Jan. 9,
finished third in Winston Cup points last season and has
not finished lower than sixth since 1989, had the surgery
Nov. 22 at a clinic near his home. He's needed it for a
couple of years and was scheduled to have it a year ago,
but he put it off at that time. We won't say he chickened
out, but one thing racers DO seem to fear is the prospect
of needles and knives.
|
|
Now that the work has been
done, Mark talks about it casually. "The loose vertebrae
were just scooting against the nerves, and that causes
these pain waves," he says. "[The surgeon] said these
were the loosest he'd ever seen. I've got a 4.5in
incision in my back that's healing, where they removed
bone and packed it in there. It takes six or eight weeks
for the bone to mend, so I've got to stay down."
|
|
Also like most racers, he
initially refused to let the operation keep him down, and
thus learned a lesson about listening to the doctor.
|
|
"The second day I was home,
[teammate] Jeff Burton came to visit me, and we went up
to the deli and had lunch," he said. "When I walked back
in the house, the phone was ringing, and [the doctor]
said, 'I hear you're feeling awful good.' He said, 'We
can do this thing again, but if we do, you won't race at
Daytona.'
|
|
"It swelled all up that
evening, and that scared me really bad. I've gotten
better and better about following orders ever since."
|
|
Mark has been racing SOMETHING since he was
12 years old, and his recuperation time will be his
longest spell out of a race car since then. Surprisingly,
that doesn't seem to bother him that much.
|
|
"Maybe I'm just hoping this,"
he begins, "but I am so removed from the competition side
of the racing world right now, I'm hoping I will embrace
it with greater enthusiasm than I hever have before."
|
|
Greg Biffle, star Craftsman
Truck pilot for owner Jack Roush, will handle the car in
January Ford tests at Daytona.
|