Mayfield's Map to... Pennsylvania 500

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: The Pennsylvania 500 at Pocono Raceway

We have to tie up some loose ends, so going way back -- how was the first pitch experience you had at the White Sox game while you were at Chicagoland?

Jeremy: Well, I'm going to be honest with you. That was probably the most nervous I've ever been in a long time, as far as uncertainty.

Mayfield's MapJeremy and Shana on their day at the ballpark and Pocono Sign up for TrackPass now BUY YOUR NEXTEL DRIVER PHONE

You know, I used to get nervous for qualifying and all that stuff, but I don't do that any more. But the other night for that pitch -- I've never been so nervous.

Walking out there in front of all those people, the players -- and everybody's telling me, "Don't hit the dirt," "Don't throw it in the dirt" and "Don't do this in the dirt."

So I'm like, "What in the hell is going on here?" So it was a great experience and I loved it but it was definitely one of the highlights of my nervousness career -- I'll tell you that.

Shana, how nervous was he?

Shana: He was nervous. And the worst thing about it was there was this little four-year-old boy that went out right before him.

Jeremy: He wasn't four years old.

Shana: He was.

Jeremy: He was about 10.

Shana: He was not 10 -- he was about four. And he threw a pitch before Jeremy and he didn't dirt it. And Jeremy's was like, "Oh my God. If this four-year-old boy threw that and then I dirt it?"

And you know me. I was coaching him telling him, "Put your hands here, and do this." Because we went out the night before and actually practiced a little bit -- and he hit me in the nose with the first pitch.

Jeremy: No, I didn't hit you. She hit herself in the nose.

Shana: I went to catch it and it tipped off the glove.

Jeremy: But I hit her in the nose?

Shana: He hit me in the nose.

Jeremy: She was like Mike Tyson, walking around with her nose out to here.

You looked like you had some decent form -- some serious concentration on your face in that picture we put up in Track Smack last week.

Shana: He did great. They wanted to sign him there at the end, but he said he already had a deal with Ray and he was happy doing what he was doing.

	Shana and Jeremy Mayfield
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Jeremy: They saw how fast I was and all the potential I had in my arm. I've got a good arm. I apologize to them for getting up their hopes of signing me -- but I told them I've got to race rather than try to play baseball.

Did your buddy Brian Harvey call you up?

Jeremy: Yeah, he did. He called me that night and asked me how I did. I told him how good I did and that they wanted to sign me, and all that stuff.

He suggested I just keep racing and not play any baseball (laughing).

But I understand the scouts were there and the Stanley Tools team from up here in Connecticut -- the New Britain Rock Cats -- hooked you up to do another pitch?

Jeremy: Yeah, I got invited to do another one a week after that, just because I was so good at the first one.

Shana: But his pitch at the Rock Cats wasn't as good as at the White Sox game.

I think he was tired a little bit because he had to drive the Stanley show car before the game. He had to do a lot of stuff and I think he was tired.

Jeremy: I wasn't nervous but I threw it a little high.

Shana: He didn't get the dirt. He threw it high.

Jeremy: I threw it high and a little bit to the right, but I don't want to show them everything I've got right now. Then, they'd want me to be doing it every week and I've got to race sometime, you know?

I told them that baseball was for off time.

Shana: And what was cool was the Rock Cats Stanley guys gave him a jersey with his name on it, with the No. 19 -- which was really cool.

Jeremy: That's one of the coolest things I've got -- I mean, it's cool. And at the White Sox game we got a hat.

Shana: And a jersey. But the Stanley guys were really great, and a lot of fun. We went up to the hospitality suite and had a great time.

Jeremy: I even drove the Stanley Tools show car around the outfield. I drove it all the way around the field and actually all the way to home plate.

You didn't attempt to do any doughnuts out there, did you?

Shana: Well, he threw dirt in the opponents' dugout, which was pretty cool.

Jeremy: I drove by and tried to do a burnout while I was by the opponents' dugout, and I threw a lot of dirt, but I actually thought I was going to wreck the car.

I was coming out of the outfield and I said, "I'm going to get on it a little bit." I got on it and it started wheel hopping out in about center field.

And it wheel-hopped almost all the way to right field, so I said "I'm going to calm this thing down before I run into home base there, the opposite way, wheel hopping.

So it was pretty cool -- a pretty cool night.

I understand the family's going to gain a member, and you didn't even go to Debbie's Petland in New Hampshire to do it?

	Inside the Numbers Jeremy Mayfield at Pocono Race Start Finish 7/1994 23 21 6/1994 35 25 7/1995 38 8 6/1996 34 15 7/1996 32 12 6/1997 27 5 7/1997 17 9 6/1998 3 1 7/1998 29 18 6/1999 23 9 7/1999 20 35 6/2000 22 1 7/2000 4 10 6/2001 9 36 7/2001 25 18 6/2002 24 36 7/2002 4 38 6/2003 33 15 7/2003 15 38 6/2004 7 2 8/2004 9 9 6/2005 6 14

Shana: Our black pug, Flash, passed away right after Jeremy's birthday. And I've been looking at these mini Bulldogs because we just love Isabelle so much.

We've kind of gotten our pug fix because Madeleine, the lady who keeps our dogs, has a ton of pugs, and with our pugs, we've got a ton of pugs. And Izzy kind of has a special place in our hearts.

But we kind of found this mini Bulldog site on the Internet, and we're flying down to West Palm Beach to pick up Zoë, is what we named her. She's going to be half the size of Isabelle, full-grown.

So she'll be about 30 pounds. I just don't know how much Isabelle is going to like her

Jeremy: Isabelle is starting to feel kind of left out. She looks around and sees all these pugs running everywhere, and she's like, she doesn't know if she's a pug or a Bulldog.

Shana: She thinks, "I don't see anybody that looks like me."

Jeremy: She kind of looks a little weird. So we're gonna get her another pug, because we can't handle another Bulldog.

She already weighs about 60 or 70 pounds, so we got one that's half her size. But it looks just like her.

Shana: Zoë is just as cute as a button. But we haven't been to Debbie's yet -- at least as of Saturday morning, so that could change and we might end up with two more (laughing).

Jeremy: At the best, we could have two, three or four Bulldogs.

Motoring around the Internet, you haven't found an orangutan site, have you? You're still working on Buster's buddy, I assume?

Jeremy: Man, we've been looking and I'll tell you what. We're going to look at one of those, too, while we're down there in West Palm.

There's one that they're having trouble with discipline, because he's pretty old and pretty big. I think he's four-foot, six inches tall and he's got a real long reach on him.

And they're having trouble with him popping people upside the head and stuff, so we're going to go down there and look at him and try to see if we can take him and work with him -- let Buster run around with him a little bit.

I feel like Buster's got a touch to him that might allow him to train him. He's whipped like, about three people down there so we're hoping Buster might be able to calm him down a little bit.

Sounds like a fine, humanitarian effort.

Jeremy: He's in a zoo right now and we don't want to leave him in a zoo. We'd rather have him here, with Buster.

Shana: What's his name?

Jeremy: Cletus is what they call him, and he seems pretty cool. But he's pretty stubborn. But I feel like Buster will be able to straighten him out.

They're like two peas in a pod, do you think?

Jeremy: I guess you kind of want one that's a little aggressive, but I guess they say he's overly aggressive

Shana: And you know, anytime you see a guy with any kind of animal, it's a chick magnet. So that should help Buster.

Jeremy: And the good thing about an orangutan, like that is that Buster will be able to spend all of his time with it

Shana: Dress him up, change his diaper.

Jeremy: He can train him to help him clean up the inside of the coach. He's trained to do a lot of stuff, so it could be pretty good.

I just hope Buster and the orangutan don't get too tight, you know?

Going back to Pocono -- and with what we went through last month -- you're your experiences did you ever think about moonlighting as a paving contractor after they had all the trouble with the patches at the Tunnel Turn?

Jeremy: Oh yeah -- that's been there and that paving deal is terrible.

I'm not sure what they're going to do, but they have to do something, because when we go through the Tunnel Turn now, I'm telling you, it's like you hit a speed bump.

It's bigger than anything you've ever seen in a parking lot, and it's right in the middle of the racetrack. And you don't even see it, is the bad thing.

You can't even see it to drive around it. And who's going to drive around it in the Tunnel Turn, anyway? You can be right on the bottom and I'm not joking. As soon as you hit it the tires had to come off the ground, like two feet in the air.

It was causing a lot of trouble with guys, but we didn't have that trouble. We didn't have any issues at all, other than it was a pretty rough ride, but it could be pretty dangerous.

You ever feel like you could do a better job, since you've got experience with a lot of pavement?

Shana: He definitely could do a better job.

Jeremy: Yeah, I could do a better job because I know a lot about paving and stuff.

Shana: He knows a lot about everything. Whatever it is to be done, Jeremy can do it.

Jeremy: You get us racecar drivers together, and we can do it (laughing). Or we'll tell you how to do it.

But the thing about it is, that we -- the drivers -- could help these racetracks a lot more than they think, with little things like that right there at the Tunnel Turn -- fixing that bump.

Shana: You could give them a little input before they do it.

Jeremy: Like, you go to Charlotte. A lot of places have issues with their tracks and we could help them a lot if they would just ask.

So hopefully they've got Pocono fixed.

You got the blessing here of going back a month later -- is there anything you thought you wanted to do in June you'll do now?

Jeremy: What I'd like to do is find this place called RTS Chassis, which builds these Mini Sprint Cars. I'd like to go there.

I tried to find it last time and I couldn't find it so this time I'm hoping I can get back up there to go by and check out the Mini Sprints that they sell.

She didn't know that.

So Shana, what do you want to do?

Shana: There's nothing.

Jeremy: She wants to go to the mall.

Shana: No. There's really nothing to do up there. I'd really like to take the jet and head over to New York City for the day. That would be kind of cool (laughing), because it's kind of close.

But I don't know. I guess it will depend on how we're running that week -- if I can talk Jeremy into letting me do that.

Jeremy: While we were in Loudon, we just about had to drive to Connecticut, you know -- and I don't know how far that is. Because there was a mall there with a Nordstrom's in it.

Shana: There was an anniversary sale (last) weekend. And this is how much I love my husband -- I came with him and missed the anniversary sale at Nordstrom's.

I thought for sure they had to have a Nordstrom's somewhere in New Hampshire. And there's not. There's not one in Vermont. The closest one was in Connecticut.

Jeremy: Or Wyoming. We might take the jet out to Wyoming.

Shana: So we were going to drive two hours to Connecticut. But at Pocono -- I don't know because there's really nothing to do.

I don't know if I'm going to go back to the diner.

Yeah, I was gonna ask you what are the specials this week at the diner?

Shana: I don't know what the specials are and you know what?

We ate there the last time we were there in Pocono and I don't know if it's under new management, but it wasn't quite as good as I remember it being.

Jeremy: You can't get an egg salad there so I don't know what would be left to eat.

Shana: I love egg salad. Jeremy got tuna salad and he didn't like it.

Jeremy: I'm not big on that, but it was a good place to eat.

Shana: And I still can't remember the name of it.

Pocono's got that silly impound schedule -- I know you don't like them -- but will that enable you to do anything?

Jeremy: I think I'm definitely going to sign autographs on the souvenir trailer, Saturday after qualifying. I'll always do that when I have time.

And I'm going to try to find that chassis shop, just for about an hour or so.

Then we're going to try to find "Shoe Show Shana" a shoe store or something like that, you know what I mean?

Shana: I don't need anything.

Jeremy: Shoe Show Shana, that's what I'm going to call you.

Word association: Pocono

Hot tub

Jeremy: Heart-shaped, honeymoon.

Shana: Relaxing.

ARCA

Jeremy: My first race at Pocono.

Shana: Erin Crocker.

Ripple strips

Jeremy: Tunnel Turn.

Shana: What are those?