The 2003 Virginia 500

Athough exhausted and out of breath from 500 intense laps, Mark Martin

Mark brought home the #6 Viagrā (sildenafil citrate) Ford Taurus in 17th position at Martinsville Speedway in a hard fought duel to the finish at the series' smallest racetrack. Under the direction of crew chief Ben Leslie, the team flourished on pit road with several pit stops under 15 seconds, which protected the decent finish.

Mark started the race from the 24th position, but quickly moved up as the race evolved into an unusually long green flag run. By the first caution flag on lap 79, Mark had jumped to 16th place. Under caution and on pit road, the team took two rounds of wedge out to assist the handling and sent Mark back onto the track in 15th place. Mark stayed there solidly as the laps ticked off until the second caution flag period on lap 121. After receiving service, Mark radioed the crew with an encouraging message. "We seem to be pretty competitive-especially if we can keep the rear tires from falling off on these long runs." Crew chief Ben Leslie radioed back, "Yeah, the top-five cars out here are pretty stout, but we're looking good, too."

Mark continued his forward march all the way up to 12th place by lap 195 of the 500 lap event. By then, another long green flag run was taking its toll on the field and the leaders began to appear in the mirror of the #6 Viagraā Ford. Mark put up an extremely valiant fight for the ten laps of 233-242. Again and again, he fought hard along the outside of then leader Dale Earnhardt, Jr. Mark's spotter, Chris Morris, radioed encouragement to his driver: "Way to fight!" he stated over and over again. It was on lap 233 that new leader Jeff Gordon finally did put the #6 Viagrā Ford one lap down to the field.

Mark was the first car one lap down in 16th place for the next two subsequent restarts following caution periods, but he couldn't catch a break that would give him his lap back. Mark began to fade a little as the race reached its 300th circuit. Mark was running in 18th place, but a pit stop under caution on lap 349 gained the team several spots back. "Great job, we picked up a few big spots there, boys," radioed Mark to his crew. With teammate Matt Kenseth on the point of the restart trying to get his lap back, Mark bided his time as well, hoping for a break that would put them both back at the tail end of the lead lap. Instead, the two were treated to another unusual long green flag run.

Mark hung around 15th place for the remainder of the race until a minor altercation occurred less than ten laps from the finish. With Mark and teammates Matt Kenseth and Kurt Busch running nose to tail on worn tires, they all ran out of room and collided coming off of turn four. All were able to keep going, with Mark coming home 17th in the final finishing order.

Afterwards, he spoke of his grueling day at the .523-mile track:

"We had a car that ran good for 50 laps on tires and we worked our way up almost to the top 10 several times on short runs, but we got two long ones and got a lap down both times. We got one of them back, but the last one we couldn't get back. We had potential to finish a lot better than that, but things just didn't quite fall our way."

Mark is now listed in 15th place in the 2003 Winston Cup point standings with 970 points. He is 360 back from leader and teammate Matt Kenseth. The series takes next weekend off for the Easter break, then returns to action at California Speedway in two weeks.