Virginia 500

It was another heartbreaking weekend for Mark. Once again, Marks day ends on the wall of turn 4

the team showed that they are contenders to win races, only to be disappointed with their finish.

Mark claimed the final starting position based on speed Friday afternoon to start the race in 36th place. He was pleased with the car after happy hour practice on Saturday and believed they would have a good run if they could stay out of trouble starting in the back.

Once the race began, Mark patiently began working his way to the front of the field. Many of the leaders pitted during the second caution on lap 56, but Mark decided to stay out to gain track position. The strategy moved him from 31st place up to sixth. The Viagrả Taurus was working well and Mark continued to move forward. He was in third place when another caution came out on lap 94. Once again, he and Jimmy Fennig made the decision to stay out and Mark took over the lead.

When the race resumed, he pulled away from the field a bit and was able to save his brakes with the open track in front of him. With 130-degree track temperatures on a half-mile track it is very important to take care of your equipment early in the race.

Mark held the lead for 42 laps until his next pit stop under caution on lap 148. The team had a lightening-fast pit stop, but since many of the other teams that had recently pitted stayed out, Mark was 20th when he returned to the track. That did not slow him down as he kept pushing his way to the front. He was running 19th when he was able to avoid an accident around him on lap 212. He was 13th when the race resumed and had moved up to ninth place by the halfway point at lap 250.

Bad luck struck for Mark on lap 269 when he hit the outside wall in turn four. The driver's side of the car hit hard, but fortunately Mark was not injured in the accident. It did end his day early, which resulted in a 39th place finish which dropped him to 26th in the point standings.

"I can't even say how disappointed I am," Mark said. "The car was running well and we led a bunch of laps and then this happened. It was really tough out there today between the temperature and the beating and banging going on. I'm not even sure what happened. One second I was running ninth and the the next thing I knew I was hitting the wall. Maybe a weekend off is what we need to turn our luck around. That seems to be what we are missing - a little luck."

The Winston Cup teams take a well-deserved weekend off before heading to Talladega Superspeedway on April 22.

MARTINSVILLE - IN MARK'S WORDS
"It has been another really busy week. I've spent a lot of time trying to catch up on things I haven't been able to do since the season started. I'm really looking forward to a weekend off. We're going racing with Matt tonight (Wednesday) and again on Friday, so that should be a lot of fun.

I'm still pretty mad about what happened to us at Martinsville last weekend. That was one of the best cars I've had there in years. We were running really good and then the left-rear tire blew. I must have run over something that cut the tire since the guys found a three-inch cut in the tire after the wreck. I stayed in the car for a little bit after I hit the wall since I was too mad to get out. I'm not sure why we've had so much bad luck this season, but hopefully it will turn around for us after a weekend off.

I'm not looking forward to Talladega either. I've never enjoyed racing there, but with the rules the way they are now, it makes it even worse. It reminds me of driving down the interstate in really heavy traffic and all of a sudden there is construction and the lanes swerve. You don't really know where you are supposed to go, but you just hope the other cars around you don't mess up. You don't have time to react, you just keep going and hope it works out.

The good news of the week is that Jim Neaves, the president of the New Smyrna Quarter-Midget Association, is getting better. He was injured at the track over a week ago, but the doctors expect him to make a full recovery. I went with Arlene and Matt to the hospital yesterday to visit him and he talked to us for a little while. He's got a long way to go, but everyone is optimistic that it will all work out okay. Thanks for keeping him in your prayers.

I hope you all have a happy Easter weekend. I'm going to spend time with my family and enjoy some time to relax. Thanks for your continued support through the good times and the bad."