Jeremy Mayfield Credit: Autostock

10 Questions: Jeremy Mayfield

During a break in the action at Darlington Raceway, Jeremy Mayfield, driver of the No. 19 Evernham Motorsports Dodge, sat down to answer 10 questions not specifically directed at his racing career.

1. What's your dream vehicle that you don't already own?

Man, a 1969 Dodge Super Bee would probably be it. That would be cool.

Q: Is that something like what the Dukes of Hazzard had?

No, this is the one that's got the wing on it -- the Daytona version of it, with the wing on the back of it. I always wanted one because I think they're cool.

Now that I'm driving for Dodge I think that would be awesome to have one of those.

Mayfield recalls the best prank ever played on him Sign up for TrackPass now BUY YOUR NEXTEL DRIVER PHONE

Q: Who were your favorite winged Dodge drivers?

It would have to be either (Richard) Petty or (Buddy) Baker or -- Cale (Yarborough) didn't drive one, did he?

Q: Charlie Glotzbach?

Oh yeah, Glotzbach was good in that car, too.

2. If time on the road weren't an issue, what would be your ideal pet?

I love our dogs and they're probably the ideal pets, right there.

But something I think that would be cool is I'd like to get an orangutan to ride with Buster, who drives my coach. I think it'd be cool to have one.

Q: Is that something you would like, or are you really thinking more of Buster?

More for companionship for Buster because he needs a good companion and someone to ride with him. I think the dogs would get along well with it.

I think it would be neat to have a partner to ride up and down the road with him. Go sightseeing around a little bit and keep him straight.

3. What's your biggest pet peeve driving on the road?

I hate traffic. I mean, it just wears me out when you've got to sit somewhere and somebody's driving slow and you've got to go.

I guess that's what you're talking about. That's probably the biggest thing I hate, when you're following somebody and they're just moping along taking their time and you're in a hurry. I just hate traffic.

My whole life I've been trained -- my brain's been trained I guess you'd say, to pass people -- don't sit behind anybody. And I hate sitting in traffic.

Q: I hate to ask, but what's your best trick for dealing with traffic?

The best thing I've done in the past is that if you're trying to get over and somebody won't let you over. You just act like you're going to swerve over -- like you don't see them -- two or three times and they'll back off and you can pull in.

It's because they don't want to wreck their stuff, either. Not that I do -- but if you ever have to get over -- you give 'em a couple moves acting like you don't know they're over there, or you don't see 'em and they'll move.

They'll get out of the way.

	Credit: Autostock
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4. Racing means travel, so what is your worst hotel experience?

I've got a couple. Back before we had motor coaches, I had a lot of bad experiences just being late -- or thinking I'm going to be late. I'd leave the hotel and not know where I was going -- or where it was located.

But the biggest one was, we stayed at a place one time -- I think it was out in Phoenix -- and it was just terrible.

You'd walk outside and there'd be cars up on blocks. The wheels had just been stolen right there in the parking lot. So it was not a good place to stay.

I don't even remember the name of it, but it was a bad hotel.

5. What's your favorite food?

Just in general, I like Italian. I like spaghetti and pasta and lasagna and raviolis -- stuff like that.

But overall, it's got to be something sweet, like doughnuts. Krispy Kremes or something like that. I just love junk food so I guess I've got to include that category.

Q: We got to get back to Italian, so what's the best place out on the road to get Italian?

In general, something that's in a lot of places would be the Olive Garden. I love that, and it's probably the best place to eat Italian.

6. If you had to choose, would it be being honest or being nice?

Those things -- being honest and nice -- kind of go hand-in-hand, I think. But probably it would be honest.

I'd rather be mean and honest than nice and dishonest.

7. What's your fondest childhood memory?

Gosh, I've got a bunch of them. Probably I remember a long time ago riding my little Indian motorcycle around my grandmother's back yard.

I had no idea that it was going to happen like this, but I used to go out there and just make laps, not realizing that when most people ride motorcycles they do dirt bike stuff -- and I had just made an oval track in her yard.

She came out of the house and chased me off the motorcycle because I had just made a nice, d-shaped dirt track out in her back yard.

It ended up, I think she felt sorry for me and just let me keep doing it, but that was probably my best story. The first time I got my mini-bike.

8. What would be your dream date: Where and with whom?

Whew! What would be my dream date? I feel like I've already had it. I felt like it was with my wife, Shana.

I think it's pretty cool that being with her has been like a dream come true and she's helped me in a lot of ways.

I don't know where it would have been, but probably in Darlington somewhere, where we met. I haven't had any dream dates after that. That's politically correct, but I mean that.

Q: Where would you go with Shana that you haven't been?

I can't say down in the Bahamas -- but it would be somewhere way tropical. Somewhere in the South Pacific islands, I think. Way down there, where you could kick back.

It would be where the beaches are solid white and the water is clear and blue, with no phones. We'd just kick back, lie up in a country state of mind and waste out.

9. Racing and pranks seem to go hand-in-hand, so what's the worst prank that you either perpetrated or had played on you?

I've had a lot of stuff done and I've done a lot of stuff to different people. I'm all the time getting people at the shop.

But I've got to say the best one I've ever seen done on me was done by Ray (Evernham).

I was in a hurry one day and I was running late for a deal I had at the shop. I had to do a photo shoot with Ray and Kasey and Bill.

I thought we were going to do it separately -- I didn't know we had to do it all together. So I come running in and they're all sitting there waiting on me. And if you know Ray you know he doesn't like to be late.

So he acts like he's mad and says, "Send him up to get his makeup on." So I went upstairs to get my makeup on, a nervous wreck because here I am holding this thing up 20 minutes, with a camera crew sitting around waiting.

So the lady takes me up to the office and starts putting my makeup on, and I noticed everybody is either pissed off at me or mad, or something, because nobody would look at me or say anything.

So she puts all this makeup on and stuff, and we head downstairs and Ray is still trying to be like he's serious and mad. But he's halfway smiling, so I'm thinking, "Well, at least he's not too mad at me."

So we take our picture and then I realize everybody is laughing. He had the lady put eye shadow and lipstick on me -- all this makeup -- and I didn't even know it because I had no way of looking at it.

So that's got to be the best one I've ever seen done -- on me anyways.

I had another good one. I buy all this prank joke stuff that you buy at Spencer's and all these places.

I found this diaper that looks like it's been used. I don't know if you've ever seen one of those.

But a guy from the engine shop kind of got me at Indianapolis. He was messing with me a little bit, so I said, "That's all right, I'll get you back."

So I stuck this diaper in his briefcase and about a couple weeks later he opens his briefcase up, and it's nasty.

Now, it's a fake one but whomever they copied, it was big. It was a mess. And he opens his briefcase up and there's some dirty diaper in his briefcase.

He was pretty hot over that, but that was a pretty good one. I liked that one.

10. What would you consider your "Welcome to NASCAR moment?"

I had a bunch of those early on. Welcome to NASCAR? But I don't know how to answer that.

Q: It could be anything, like somebody coming up and drilling you or even that time Cale took you and showed you how to get around Darlington.

Oh yeah. Probably my welcome to NASCAR -- probably my first couple races -- would be finding out who Dale Earnhardt and Dave Marcis were.

Those two guys, all the time -- if you were the new guy coming in, Marcis and Earnhardt, no matter where you were in the race, or practice, or whatever.

They'd bump you and let you know that this was their game and you're going to come in their way and this was the way it was going to be.

That's something that if I look back, was my welcome to NASCAR -- was learning how to race here. It was learning the right and the wrong things to do.