The 2002 UAW-DaimlerChrysler 400

Consistency has been a staple of Mark's racing career at the Mark at Vegas

Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Going into Sunday's UAW-Daimler Chrysler 400, Mark was the only driver to have finished in the top 10 in all four previous races. Sunday would be no exception as Mark and the No. 6 Viagra® Racing team would post yet another strong run in Vegas. In a city built on glitter and gold, Mark and the No. 6 team would post a hard nose effort en route to their first top-five finish of the season and second top 10 in only three races. Driving what he would later term "the best car I've had in a long, long time," Mark and the No. 6 Viagra® team started the race in sixth place after turning in a strong lap in qualifying on Friday. Mark ran in the top 10 for virtually every lap of the race and the No. 6 Viagra® Racing team kept Mark in the front of the pack with several clutch performances in the pits, the most critical coming on Mark's last pit stop of the day. With Mark running in fifth place when a caution came out on lap 232, the No. 6 team chose to pit, taking four tires and fuel. On the strength of an impressive 13.95-second stop, Mark returned to the field in fifth place, ahead of then leader Tony Stewart and the three other cars that had pitted in front of him. Mark trailed only the cars that chose not to pit or took only two tires.

Mark quickly worked his way up to third place, setting the No. 6 Viagra® Ford Taurus up for a run at the checkered flag when Kyle Petty got tied up with Robbie Gordon, causing Petty to spin out and the yellow flag to come with just 13 laps to go. The cars were setup for a single-file restart when green flag laps resumed with 10 to go. Eventual race winner Sterling Marlin appeared to get a jump on the field and Mark would never be able to catch up. Still after the race Mark and the No. 6 team were elated with the strong run.

Starting lineup at Vegas

"The Viagra® Taurus was something else today," said Mark just moments after the race. "I told Ben (Leslie) I just wanted to see the front at the end of the race and boy we could."

In fact Mark saw the front for the majority of the race, running in the field's top five for more than 170 laps of the race, including the last 52 laps on the 1.5 mile track en route to the third-place finish, the 189th top-five finish and 295th top-10 finish of Mark's famed Winston Cup career.

After working with the car's setup for much of the weekend, Mark was happy with the handling of the car by the start of the race and immediately moved into fifth position on the first lap after starting in the sixth position. The car started to get a little tight by the 27th lap of the race, however, Mark was still running lap times faster than the leaders when caution came out on lap 61. He was running in ninth position when the caution came out. In the first of many stellar pit stop performances, the No. 6 team took four tires, fuel and made rear end and air pressure adjustments in 15.696 seconds to send Mark back out in fifth place when the field went green on lap 66.

jack at Vegas

Mark continued to run in the front of the field, and by lap 100 he was running the fastest times of any car on the track. With the front end starting to become a "little shaky" Mark and the No. 6 team pitted with most of the field under green-flag conditions on lap 122, taking four tires, fuel and making air pressure adjustments. In another excellent stop of 14.80 seconds, the team kept Mark in fifth position before he moved up to fourth place on lap 131.

Caution broke out once again on lap 141 and the No. 6 Viagra® Racing team decided to come into the pits and take four more fresh tires. Happy with the way the car was handling, the team chose to make no changes, and after a stop of 14 seconds flat, Mark was again running in fifth place once all the cars were finished pitting on lap 143.

Mark was running in seventh position when the car started to tighten up around lap 172, and by lap 185 the car started to push. Still Mark was running lap times as fast or faster than the race leaders and closing in faster on each lap. He was running in sixth place on lap 204 as most of the cars began to pit under green conditions. Stopping to take four tires and make adjustments to the rear of the car, the No. 6 team turned in a 15.269-second stop and moments later Mark was running in ninth position on lap 217.

Mark Martin

By lap 232 he had moved back into the top five. The No. 6 team's excellent pit work on lap 233 would secure Mark his first top-five finish of the season and his third at Las Vegas in five races. Mark has now completed every lap of all five races in Vegas, the only driver to do so.

"I'm awfully proud of Ben (Leslie) and the Viagra® crew," said Mark after the race. "They made the car better all day and they helped make it better every day we were here.

"We ran really great all day and we had great pit stops that helped keep us out in the front of the pack," added Mark.

Still Mark was adamant that today's performance is only a glimpse of things to come. "We can get better," said Mark. "From here we can win. We aren't as good as we can get and we will be better."

After three races, Mark and the No. 6 team are fourth in the points standings, a higher mark than achieved all of last season. The Viagra® Racing team will now turn its attention to next week's MBNA America 500 in Atlanta.