The 2005 USG Durock 300

Mark and the No. 9 Pennzoil Platinum Team Marks Busch Car

ran to a fifth-place finish in Saturday’s USG Durock 300 Busch race at Chicagoland Speedway. Starting his first career Busch race at the 1.5-mile mile track, he started the race 10th and led seven laps in route to his 97th career top-five Busch finish.

“We had a top-five car and that’s where we finished,” said Mark. “The team did a great job with the car and in the pits all day and we were able to get a good, solid finish out of the deal. It was a good effort all day by the No. 9 Pennzoil team. We weren’t quite good enough to get up there and race for the win, but we had a really good car all day.”

Mark broke into the top five on lap 25 and moved up to as high as third on lap 39. He was running in sixth place on lap 76 when the day’s third caution was issued. With several cars in the field experiencing tire trouble Mark feared a problem with his right rear and the team came down pit road to take right side tires only. The stop dropped Mark out of sequence and back to 21st place when the field went green on lap 80 of the 200-lap race.

Mark wasted little time moving back up front, breaking back into the top-10 on lap 113. By lap 130 Mark was running back inside the top five and he took the lead on lap 132 and held it for the next seven laps until pitting under green on lap 139. The stop dropped Mark back to 15th place and a lap down, until the field cycled through on lap 150, with Martin back on the lead lap and in seventh place.

He drove his No. 9 Ford back into the top five on lap 163 and stayed there for the next 22 laps until dropping back to sixth on lap 185 with just 15 to go. Mark restarted in sixth after the day’s seventh and final caution on lap 194. He moved back into the top-five on the next lap and held on for the top-five finish, his third top-five in five Busch races this season.

The No. 9 team will return to action in September in Richmond, where Mark will look for his record extending career 48th win in the Busch series. Mark finished seventh at Richmond in the season’s first Busch race there in April.