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JEREMY MAYFIELD<br />
PHOTO TO COME<br />
Don’t be fooled by the easygoing smile.<br />
There’s nothing — nothing — easygoing<br />
about Jeremy Mayfield when he gets behind<br />
the wheel, whether it’s the wheel of a street<br />
car, the remote control car he races on a dirt<br />
track at home or the No. 19 Dodge Dealers/<br />
<strong>UAW</strong> Dodge Charger.<br />
Mayfield, who turns 37 this season,<br />
grew up with speed, riding a motorcycle<br />
when he was just 4 years old growing up<br />
in Owensboro, Ky. He quickly moved<br />
up the ranks, running four Cup races in<br />
1994, then landing a full-time ride with<br />
NASCAR legend Cale Yarborough the<br />
following year.<br />
He was a young gun before there were<br />
young guns like his teammate Kasey<br />
Kahne. Roger Penske saw Mayfield’s talent<br />
and signed him to drive the No. 12 car,<br />
which he piloted to a seventh-place finish<br />
in the 1998 Winston Cup Championship<br />
after leading the points standings early in<br />
the season.<br />
After leaving<br />
Penske in 2001<br />
following disappointing<br />
seasons, Mayfield<br />
joined Evernham<br />
Motorsports the following<br />
year, but it wasn’t<br />
until 2004 that he<br />
turned around his career<br />
and became a Top-10<br />
driver. He credits Ray<br />
Evernham. “I had to learn<br />
how to trust in how he was<br />
leading,” Mayfield says.<br />
“For a while, I didn’t see the<br />
results I wanted fast enough.<br />
‘Why can’t we do this? Why<br />
can’t we do that?’ That’s just<br />
Top-10 driver Jeremy Mayfield<br />
my personality and that’s what has gotten me<br />
in trouble in the past. I just had to stop and<br />
take a step back. I said, ‘OK, let’s go along<br />
with the plan and see what’s going on here.’”<br />
The gains were dramatic. After finishing<br />
26th in 2002 and 19th in 2003, Mayfield<br />
finished 10th in the 2004 Nextel Cup Chase<br />
and ninth in 2005.<br />
Getting into the Top 10 wasn’t enough for<br />
Mayfield this time. “Everyone looks at us like<br />
we’re not getting the job done, but we are,”<br />
he says. Problems late in the 2005 season at<br />
Martinsville prevented a higher finish. “We<br />
can’t control the fluke things that have been<br />
happening to us. That’s the way that it is.”<br />
What’s clear is that with consecutive<br />
shots in the Chase, <strong>2006</strong> may be the year<br />
Mayfield and Evernham build on what<br />
they’ve learned and make that longexpected<br />
run for the Cup title. ■<br />
TOMORROW SPECIAL RACING <strong>2006</strong> 21
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