Ryan Newman's battered No. 12 Dodge finished 26th at Watkins Glen. Credit: Autostock

Mayfield takes Newman's place in the Chase

WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. -- Don't look back, pitching great Satchel Paige once said, someone might be gaining on you.

SIRIUS AT THE GLEN •   Results •   Standings

That will be Jeremy Mayfield's mantra now that he has reached the top 10 in the NASCAR Nextel Cup points standings.

Only the top 10 will be eligible for the 2004 championship in the Chase for the Nextel Cup over the final 10 races of the season. Mayfield's solid seventh-place finish, coupled with a 26th-place finish by Ryan Newman, pushed Mayfield from 12th to 10th in the points.

Jeremy Mayfield

Newman dropped two spots to 12th, behind Kasey Kahne. Now, Mayfield is the target for several drivers as the race to the Chase narrows to a four-race battle.

As many as five drivers are without shouting distance of Mayfield, with Kahne the closest at 24 points out of 10th. Newman is 29 points behind Mayfield, with Mark Martin (72 points out of 10th), Dale Jarrett (87) and Jamie McMurray (99) within reach.

Casey Mears is 16th, 214 points behind Mayfield.

After the Pepsi 400 at Daytona, Mayfield was 137 points out of 10th. Since then, he's finished 11th or better in five consecutive races to move into the top 10.

"We've just got to maintain that now," Mayfield said. "Don't look back, just keep doing what we've been doing."

Newman, on the other hand, is only looking forward.

"We lost a bunch today, but I know we can fight back," Newman said. "Today was no good excuse, but we'll come back in the next few races."

Ryan Newman

Newman has gone the opposite direction lately. He was as high as sixth in the points earlier this year but has four DNFs in the last 12 races. Sunday at Watkins Glen, Newman's brakes faded away.

"The team did a good job to fight back and stay on the lead lap as long as we could," Newman said. "Just no brakes. An error in the system."

Newman's problems weren't limited to the brakes. He collided with Morgan Shepherd in the Inner Loop, and later was bumped by Tony Ave on a restart when Ave swerved to miss a slow-starting Rusty Wallace.

"I checked up on what brakes I had," Newman said, "and I still hit him."

Dale Jarrett

Jarrett, who was second last week at Indy and came into Watkins Glen 55 points out of 10th, finished 27th after a Lap 6 incident with Brian Vickers.

Vickers dove inside Jarrett heading into the Inner Loop but hit the ripple strip and bounced into Jarrett. Both cars spun and got stuck in the gravel pit, each losing a lap in the process.

"I messed up. I feel bad but I guess you learn," Vickers said. "I hate that it had to involve somebody else but I just messed up. We had a great car. I just got impatient in the inner loop there. I got in there a little too hot, and when I got into the curve the car just kind of jumped up into the air and the brakes didn't work too well after that.

"I hate it more for Dale Jarrett than anybody. He's a friend of mine and probably pretty mad at me right now."

Martin, after a heartbreaking 25th-place finish last week at Indy, rebounded with a strong third at The Glen. Martin was running fourth in the Brickyard 400 when he had a flat left-front tire during the green-white-checkered finish.

"We should be so far up in there that we shouldn't even be talking about it, so I don't have much to say about it," Martin said about the race to the Chase. "Last week was devastating, but so was Chicago and so was Pocono and so was Michigan.

Mark Martin

"The thing that I am happy about is when I bolt down in my Viagra Taurus on Sundays that thing can go. ... I can't keep the air in the tires, can't keep the parts from breaking, so maybe all that stuff's behind us and we can go out here and win some races. I'm not worried about the points. We already lost a whole lot of 'em."

While Martin is on the outside looking in, Mayfield has his sights set on moving up even higher in the points. Bobby Labonte is only three points ahead in ninth, with Kevin Harvick 40 ahead in eight.

"Everything coming up is right in our style and our favor," Mayfield said. "Should be a good next four or five weeks for us. We're really excited about it. We've got a lot of good tracks coming up, and we should be strong.

"This was our main one we wanted to get through right here. We made gains today, and when you make gains on your weak spots, that's a good day for us."