Jeremy Mayfield's best finish this season is 13th at Atlanta last weekend. Credit: Chris Stanford/Getty Images

Mayfield: Evernham bunch on right track

Atlanta improvement will be 'turning point of our season,' he said

Ray Evernham's team has discovered what it hopes is the secret to making the new Dodge Charger competitive in the Nextel Cup Series.

Through the first four races of 2005, the Chargers have no finish better than a fourth-place run by Chip Ganassi Racing's Jamie McMurray at California Speedway in the second race of the season.

	Credit: Autostock
	Inside the Numbers Evernham Motorsports in the 2005 Nextel Cup Series Driver Starts Wins Top-10s B. Elliott 2 0 0 K. Kahne 4 0 1 J. Mayfield 4 0 0 Total 10 0 1 NOTE: Kahne's lone top-10 finish was a fifth two weeks ago at Atlanta Motor Speedway

But Evernham driver Jeremy Mayfield thought his team came up with some important aerodynamic changes two weeks ago in Atlanta as he drove to a season-best 13th-place finish. The team tested last week at Kentucky Speedway, trying to improve on those changes.

"We had a new nose and new spoiler -- basically, a whole new car,'' Mayfield said. "It hurt us for a couple of weeks. We got a couple of races into it and thought, `Whoa, we need to rethink this whole thing.' We were trying to do something a little bit different.

"We went in the direction we thought we needed to go because we only had a few days to get ready for Atlanta. When we improved, we said we were going to test our butts off at Kentucky and really figure it out.

"We hit on something that's going to be huge for us the rest of the year. It will get the aero balance back where it needs to be.''

Mayfield, who made it into the Chase for the Nextel Cup championship playoff last year, added, "This is definitely going to be the turning point of our season.''

Mayfield and teammate Kasey Kahne, who also has been struggling this season, will get to test out that prediction Sunday in the Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway.