| By Dave Rodman, NASCAR.COM
June 23, 2005
11:56 AM EDT (15:56 GMT)
Each week throughout the season, Jeremy Mayfield and his wife, Shana, share their memories of that weekend's racetrack -- and the happenings around it. This week: Infineon Raceway Q: Shana, does Jeremy stress out over going to a road course? Or going to the West Coast? Do you notice any difference in him? Shana Mayfield: Not really. He used to stress over road courses, but I think over the years he's gotten better at driving them so I think he kind of looks forward to them a little bit. I think he dreads the flight more than anything -- it's such a long way, especially to Sonoma. I think we have to stop two or three times. Fontana's not that bad of a flight, but Sonoma is a hard flight on us so he kind of gets ill about that. But the road course thing is just a different mentality for him. He just goes and has fun with it, and I think that's why he does so well. It's a different deal for him and he doesn't put a lot of pressure on himself. He knows it's (only) two races a year. He has fun and he's gotten better. I think he's got a lot more confidence going out there, which is pretty cool. Q: That's a darn long flight, so what have you guys discovered as stress relief on long flights, or diversions? Jeremy Mayfield: We talk a lot. I talk a whole lot, on the plane. Shana Mayfield: He talks the whole time. Jeremy Mayfield: I read magazines. I'll bring about 50 -- no, I guess about four or five R/C car magazines. I go through all my chassis books. I read different aero books and all that stuff. Once I'm done with all that, which is about an hour into the flight, I'll start talking about everything. So I kind of make everybody mad on the plane, talking so much. But it's pretty cool. I think the airplane ride out there is a way for me to get away from everything, too, and to get a chance to get caught up on my reading. I read up on all the chassis stuff that I don't know, read a lot of racecar books and how-to-drive books and all that stuff, so it gives me a chance to get caught up on some stuff. Q: Going to Sonoma you have another choice of airports. Do you opt for Oakland, San Francisco, Sacramento -- or an FBO closer to the track? Jeremy Mayfield: When I first started going out there, which was a long time ago, we used to fly commercial, into San Francisco. Then you had to drive from there to the racetrack, which is a pretty long way. Nowadays, we're fortunate enough to be able to fly into a little FBO that's right outside the racetrack. I forget the name of it, but it's a little small airport -- an FBO that everybody flies into. Shana Mayfield: They have a great restaurant there. Jeremy Mayfield: I think it's Napa -- Napa something -- (maybe Napa County Airport) but it's close by and we fly into there and it makes it a lot easier, because traffic is so bad there. On race day, if you had to drive from the racetrack to an airport further away than what that one is, it would really be a mess. You never would get home. Now, we actually helicopter in on race morning and helicopter out after the race, which makes it easier just because traffic is so bad. Q: Where do you stay while you're there? Shana Mayfield: In Petaluma, which is a small town that's close by. I think it's called Petaluma. Jeremy Mayfield: It's a pretty nice area. Shana Mayfield: It's like, a little Days Inn or something like that. And there's a casino right close by, isn't there? Not a real casino, but something like one? Jeremy Mayfield: It's not like a real one. It's kind of a deal where you go in there and hopefully you don't have to fight your way out of it. It's one of those types of casinos. Shana Mayfield: It's a cool little small town. It has some good boutiques and neat little things. Jeremy Mayfield: I get mixed up out there, because everything is Napa, Sonoma, Petaluma, Ratahuma, Hatahuma, Capalabba and all those kinds of names -- so it's hard to get to where you're staying, all the time. But I do know Petaluma is definitely a good area. Shana Mayfield: It's a cool town. Jeremy Mayfield: And there's another one right down there -- really off that one main intersection where all the little towns are located. They're all pretty cool. There are a lot of wineries around there. Q: Infineon is in the Napa Valley wine country. You do any vineyard tours while you're out there -- either together or separately? Jeremy Mayfield: Bill Elliott and I came out here when I first started with Ray Evernham -- Bill and I and Shana and Bill's wife, Cindy, came out here together. Bill and I actually went over in 2002, 2003 or something like that -- to run these little go-kart deals around the track. Cindy and Shana went on a vineyard tour. Shana Mayfield: A wine tasting tour -- it was my first time. Jeremy Mayfield: And then about halfway through our test, Bill and I were at the racetrack and we get a phone call that they had to drop Shana off back at the hotel because she wasn't feeling well. So I'll let her tell you about the rest of her wine-tasting ways. Shana Mayfield: I don't drink that much, and I hadn't eaten. Jeremy Mayfield: And you don't drive, so what? Shana Mayfield: And you don't realize they bring you a glass, and they bring you a glass and they bring you a glass. And then before you know it, you've had a half a bottle of wine and you haven't eaten. Q: And it's gooood stuff. Shana Mayfield: And it's good -- yeah. Q: I find you don't even have to know wine when you do that -- you just have to make good notes so you can get the stuff you found out you liked.  |  | | Credit: Jonathan Ferrey/Getty Images |
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| Inside the Numbers |
| Jeremy Mayfield at Infineon |
| Year |
Start |
Finish |
| 2004 |
21 |
30 |
| 2003 |
31 |
10 |
| 2002 |
26 |
28 |
| 2001 |
40 |
39 |
| 2000 |
39 |
33 |
| 1999 |
34 |
7 |
| 1998 |
5 |
18 |
| 1997 |
39 |
27 |
| 1996 |
37 |
32 |
| Average |
30.2 |
24.9 |
|
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Jeremy Mayfield: Right. Shana Mayfield: It's very good. And of course I ended up signing up for the wine club, at this point, because I didn't even really know what I was doing and it was so good. Jeremy Mayfield: You signed up for several of them, didn't you? Shana Mayfield: So I got sent cases of wine after that. But I wasn't drunk, I just had to go back and take a nap. Jeremy Mayfield: She wasn't feeling well. It was a stomach virus or something. Shana Mayfield: I was just hungry because I hadn't eaten, so Cindy and I bought a big old loaf of bread and ate the bread in the car on the way home. We stopped and had lunch and I felt better. But they were going for the rest of the day and I just couldn't make it. Q: Of course, you had a bottle of wine that you selected, to drink with the bread? Jeremy Mayfield: Several bottles of wine. Shana Mayfield: No, I was drinking water after that. Jeremy Mayfield: When we got back to the hotel that afternoon, needless to say, Shana evidently had some type of a stomach virus or something was going on -- she wasn't feeling quite well. I'm sure it wasn't from all the wine out there, or anything like that. Shana Mayfield: And I haven't been back since, because I'm just not a big drinker, so it just hit me. But it was good wine. It was Ledson Vineyards. That's the place you need to go, because it's a beautiful place with great wine. Ledson. Jeremy Mayfield: Do you remember any of the others you went to? Shana Mayfield: That's the only place we went. We only made it through one tour. Q: California is a different world. What's the strangest sight you've ever seen out there? Have you ever brought any "different" souvenirs or artifacts back from the West Coast? Shana Mayfield: I think, as far as sights, you see all kinds of different stuff. Like you said, it's a different world. But probably the neatest thing that I've seen -- the coolest thing -- was I went to Alcatraz. Everybody usually does that little tour while they're there. But to go out there and see it (was something else). When you drive across the Golden Gate Bridge you see the prison sitting out there on this little rock out in the middle of the ocean there -- whatever. And when you go out there and actually see it, it's unbelievable. It's scary. To see it and to know all the history -- to know all the people who've been in there -- you know you're seeing ghosts and hearing ghosts. That's what you think as soon as you walk in there. I mean -- that's how scary it is, so that's a pretty neat thing that I'll never forget as far as sightseeing. The rest of the people, and stuff -- you're liable to see anything. It's like anything goes out there. It's like a different mentality from the East Coast. It's not as conservative. Jeremy Mayfield: You can pretty much do what you want to do. Shana Mayfield: They do what they want and wear what they want. Jeremy Mayfield: It's a free-for-all. Shana Mayfield: Yeah -- it really is. Q: Like the "metal statues" down on Fisherman's Wharf, right? Jeremy Mayfield: Yeah. That was cool, too. We're walking by one day and I was like, "Check out that statue -- it looks so real." It looked like chrome, or a nickel-plated person standing there. It was on a stand and it looked nice. We were standing there for three or four minutes and we can't believe how detailed it is and how real it is. And the next thing you know, it moved. It was some dude that painted himself up like that. Shana Mayfield: And I don't know how his paint didn't run, because it was so hot. And he was perfectly painted. Jeremy Mayfield: He was like perfectly painted chrome. I don't know how he did it or where he gets his paint? Shana Mayfield: Or how he covered every inch of his body. He had to have somebody just paint him. Q: Maybe he went to see D.W.? Jeremy Mayfield: Yeah. He looked like a person that was dipped in chrome, you know? Shana Mayfield: Even his nails were done, perfectly. Jeremy Mayfield: And he's sitting there so real, and he's not moving at all. And the next thing you know, he moves and just smiles. I'm like, "OK, it's time to go -- I've seen it all, now." Shana Mayfield: And down on Fisherman's Wharf, near Alcatraz, there are some neat restaurants where you can sit and see Alcatraz. It's kind of eerie, when you sit there eating. It's a cool little place to go and walk around. Jeremy and I have been down there several times. Jeremy Mayfield: And speaking of statues, I think it was the same place, and there's this guy sitting there -- and all of a sudden he reaches down and takes his leg off and hands it to you. And he's sitting there and he reaches and puts his leg back on. I don't know how he did that, but it was the wildest thing. Shana Mayfield: It must have been a fake leg. |  | | Credit: Jonathan Ferrey/Getty Images |
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Jeremy Mayfield: Yeah, it was, but it was somewhere in the same area. The guy's standing there real still and all of a sudden he reaches down and pulls his leg off and tries to hand his leg out to you -- and then he puts it back on. It's like, "Wow." Shana Mayfield: I don't remember that. Q: Anything for a buck, right? Jeremy Mayfield: I've got five dollars for that. It's actually a good deal -- standing there on one leg and handing you his other one? Shana Mayfield: Oh, God. Q: There are a lot of nice restaurants out there, so do you have a go-to restaurant you have to hit while you're out there? Shana Mayfield: This is so bad because I can never remember the name of anything. But if you want to correct something from Michigan it was the Somerset Mall -- you remember don't you, Jeremy -- in Expensive, Mich.? Jeremy Mayfield: A week late, but whatever. Q: We'll catch up on Sonoma, in Daytona, right? Jeremy Mayfield: Yeah. Shana Mayfield: I don't know the name of the restaurant, again -- but it's right on the wharf. It overlooks the water, and Alcatraz. It had great seafood and steaks, it overlooked the water and it was wonderful. Jeremy Mayfield: It was not out by Alcatraz, but it looked out at it. Q: Is it where Infineon has its press luncheon -- Ghirardellli Square? Jeremy Mayfield: It may be. It's got glass all the way around so you can see it. That's it. Shana Mayfield: It's a great restaurant. Jeremy Mayfield: We'll ask the folks at NASCAR and they'll give us an update. Shana Mayfield: Other than that, we just find little places everywhere. Q: Fans. Do you feel like the West Coast NASCAR fans are just as ardent about the sport as fans are back East? Jeremy Mayfield: If you say, the fans that are out there, they are. But I guess you'd say the other side of that is, there are so many people out there that are not race fans. The fans that are out there are totally 110 percent devoted. But then again, in that area there are a certain section of people -- a certain amount of people -- that don't even know about NASCAR. That's what's wild about out there. Shana Mayfield: Whereas, if you go Bristol, and you walk around anywhere in the small town of Bristol, everybody knows about racing. It's all race fans and racing. But if you go to the small town of Petaluma, or in Napa, you don't run into people who will say, "Oh, there's a race this weekend." It's a different mentality for a lot of people who aren't race fans. Jeremy Mayfield: It's probably because there are so many people out there. Shana Mayfield: Right. Jeremy Mayfield: But it's cool. Q: Infineon has got a couple unique situations out there that both fans and competitors can take advantage of -- the rental garages and the go-karts. What's your experience with that been like? Jeremy Mayfield: Yeah. The day that Bill and I went out there was the first chance I'd actually had to walk around and see everything's that's actually there. The cool thing about it is the rental buildings that are across from the back of where the Nextel Cup garage is -- up behind Turn 11 and the main straightaway there. You walk back through there and you see everything. There are guys who make big, metal fixtures. There was a guy back there working on a huge, metal dolphin that somebody was going to use for a restaurant, or a store, or something. The next thing, you look a garage over and they're building racecar chassis. Then, they've got a go-kart shop that sells full-blown go-karts, and chassis and parts and all that. So you're liable to see anything back there, and it's pretty neat to see all the stuff that goes on, there. And then you get up over the top of the hill, above the racetrack, and they've got two big road course tracks that they run go-karts on. I guess they've got a school that you can go and have an instructor take you around and learn how to race go-karts. Bill and I had fun on that, that day. We got to go out and race by ourselves a little bit. Those things will wear you out -- I know that. He and I ran about 10 laps and we didn't want to tell each other, but we were both pretty tired after that. So go-karts are definitely good exercise and I'd advise anybody to go up there and check 'em out. Word Association: Sonoma San Francisco Jeremy Mayfield: Golden Gate Bridge. Shana Mayfield: Alcatraz. Right-hand turns Jeremy Mayfield: Not for me. Shana Mayfield: Out of his element. Boris Said Jeremy Mayfield: Afro. Wildman. Shana Mayfield: Hair. Road course king. | 
