Mayfield's Map to... the Brickyard

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 Allstate 400 at The Brickyard at Indianapolis Motor Speedway

Q: The Brickyard is a special place -- but is there any mystique you've been able to discover about Indianapolis itself?

Shana Mayfield: I don't know that they have any real mystique (laughing), but they have a great mall downtown. But other than that. . .

Jeremy and Shana talk about the uniqueness of the Brickyard Sign up for TrackPass now BUY YOUR NEXTEL DRIVER PHONE

Jeremy Mayfield: I kinda like going downtown. There is a good place to eat down there.

Shana: There are great restaurants that you can walk around to.

Jeremy: What's the name of that one steakhouse?

Shana: Ruth's Chris?

Jeremy: Small place.

Q: The one with the shrimp cocktails?

Jeremy: Yeah -- everybody goes there.

Shana: St. Elmo's.

Jeremy: Elmo's -- St. Elmo's -- yeah, that's it. That's a good place.

Q: Is that one you can't miss every time you're in Indy?

	Shana and Jeremy Mayfield
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Jeremy: Well, we miss it just because by the time we get down there it's packed and we never really can get in there, you know? And we're not much on waiting, either. But I know I've eaten there before and I'd advise anybody to wait it out to go there and eat.

Shana: We've eaten at Steak 'n Shake after we've shopped all day.

Jeremy: Yeah, that's right there, across the street.

Shana: Or to Johnny Rockets right inside the mall.

Jeremy: We usually try to go to St. Elmo's and there'll be a big line. So we say "Hmm, what's next?" You look across the street and there's a Steak 'n Shake. So that's pretty good. But I don't mind downtown Indianapolis because you can find out where you're going.

Shana: Yeah.

Jeremy: The streets are all kind of crossed the right way, you know? And they're all the names of states, like Illinois, or wherever it is, the way the streets are named.

Q: Anything cool on Kentucky Avenue?

Jeremy: Oh yeah. It's Redneck Lane running up through there. Redneck Alley, or whatever it is. Oh, it's Gasoline Alley -- that's what it is. I thought it was Kentucky.

Q: Has South Carolina had many streets named after it?

Shana: No.

Jeremy: Oh yeah. Conway.

Shana: That's a city -- there are not a lot of streets.

Q: It doesn't seem fair, does it? I mean, it's just two words: "South Carolina."

Jeremy: All the streets in Myrtle Beach are simple: Like, "First Street."

Shana: "Broadway. Third Avenue, or Second Avenue North." That's easy to understand.

Jeremy: That's because it has to be. They have to make it easy on them, there.

Shana: Hey, don't even talk. Kentucky doesn't even have streets -- they have dirt roads. Did you see that 14-pound baby born in Kentucky?

Jeremy: Right now we're on something else. Right now we're on South Carolina. We're in Myrtle Beach -- on the beach, right now, so...

Q: I don't know if NASCAR has taken the town over, but Indianapolis, the Indy 500 -- how much appreciation and interest did you guys have in Indy cars before you came here to run the Brickyard 400?

Shana: Me, I have none. None.

Jeremy: I really never did until I started driving for Roger Penske. Then I started to follow it a little bit, because of his drivers. But then, to go see his museum and all of his cars -- I thought they were really neat, and they really are, but. . .

Shana: And he took us to a race in California.

Jeremy: Yeah, we went to the final race up there. It's a great sport and it's really neat how it all works but we just never followed it.

Shana: It's so different.

Q: You never had any interest in driving Indy cars?

Jeremy: No, not really. I just never had even the slightest bit of interest in it. When I was growing up in Kentucky, I did know that the Indy 500 was huge -- and it still is.

	Credit: Rusty Jarrett/Getty Images
	Inside the Numbers Mayfield at the Brickyard Year Start Finish 2004 13 11 2003 10 41 2002 12 39 2001 16 18 1999 19 29 1998 12 42 1997 16 5 1996 19 25 1995 8 29 1994 31 26 Avg. 15.6 26.5

Shana: I like watching it because of the hype -- especially with Danica (Patrick) this year. I thought that was really cool. But it's just fun to watch hyped-up, big sports events like that.

Jeremy: And to see her run like she did. She did a great job and was there all day long and all that. And then to see Erin Crocker, who is coming up with us and who is going to be knocking on her door before long. So I think it's neat to see the good female drivers coming into the sport.

Q: Shana, if Jeremy was an Indy car driver, it really wouldn't make a difference to you, would it?

Jeremy: Oh, it would. She'd be shopping a lot more.

Shana: No, I wouldn't, or I couldn't handle it. I know they do everything for safety, but I just don't like the fact that his head is flying around in the car with nothing holding it. I just don't like it because the chance of bad injury and survival is high so I just couldn't handle it. So I'm glad he has no interest in that and no interest in piloting an airplane -- because I really would have two big issues with those.

Jeremy: I'm really thinking about becoming a pilot. I think it would be neat, and a lot cheaper to fly your own plane.

Shana: No. He's great in his racecars because he always has a presence about him, but when you get him in a normal car or in the plane I think there are too many distractions.

Q: Have you been to the museum there and what's your take on that?

Jeremy: I've never been there and I want to go. Every time I go testing there, I say I'm going to go to the museum as I come in through the tunnel. And then I test all day and I'm so worn out because it's so hot there. And then, on the way out I say "Forget the museum -- I'll see it tomorrow." But I want to go there so bad and check it out because I think it's neat. There's a lot of good history there.

Shana: Where is it?

Jeremy: As soon as you pull in through the tunnel.

Shana: Right where all the yellow shirts are?

Jeremy: I know her shopping budget would be a lot better if I drove Indy cars.

Shana: You would get paid that much more?

Jeremy: I wouldn't get paid that much more, but you'd get to go to a lot more different places.

Shana: I don't like to travel that much, or that far.

Jeremy: Well, cancel that, then.

Q: I understand the dogs come to the Brickyard. You ever walk them on the golf course inside the track?

Shana: Yeah, we actually do. Is that the golf course we stay next to?

Jeremy: No, it's right outside the racetrack. Remember, Izzy pooped on it.

Shana: She'll go wherever she has to go.

Jeremy: We didn't want her to. Right after we got inside the tunnel we stopped for her. The golf course is right outside the tunnel, I think. She didn't really poop there, because I wouldn't let her do that -- but she was right next to it.

Q: With Indy and the Brickyard being such an icon -- how's the motorhome lot measure up there?

Shana: It's not really.

Jeremy: It's not really a lot.

Shana: We used to stay inside; near the garage where you had to pay I don't remember how much money to stay there.

Jeremy: There was no room there at all. You were all jammed up together.

Shana: And the fans were right out in front of your motorhome. And now everybody's gotten into the habit where we all stay out in a grassy area over near Turn 4, isn't it?

Jeremy: Yeah, we stay near Turn 4. It's part of the Formula One track and it turns out to be a nice motorhome lot. You park along the curve there, along the Formula One track. You've got all the grass along through there.

Shana: It's awesome. People bring their chairs and their dogs and their kids and they play ball.

Jeremy: It's one of the best ones, when you think about it. It's not really a lot, and we don't have power, of course, but we have our generators.

Shana: It's great; because you see all the kids playing ball and they bring their inflatable pools and get in them. It's just cool.

Jeremy: It's cool. We like it.

Q: You got a legend of a different kind -- IRP -- do you even think about going there -- or after the schedule at The Brickyard are you pretty much over the racing thing?

Jeremy: I'd like to go out there. We always watch the Busch race there, and the Midgets or whatever else they run there -- the Sprint Cars -- on TV. But we never have gotten a chance to go out there and see it. I've never been there or even seen the place, though we do watch it on TV on the night before Indy.

Q: For this trip, Kentucky is sort of on the way from North Carolina to Indiana, so do you make any side trips?

Jeremy: Not really. My mom usually comes up there and some of the family usually comes to Indy for the race. But we don't really do any side trips. I don't get home much -- just a couple, three times a year and that's about it.

Like I said, when you do have a weekend off it's like, "Man!" You just want to be at your own house for a while because we travel so much that it's hard to do that. But Kentucky is pretty -- Owensboro is pretty much a conservative town and there is not a lot going on there. So when we do go in we kind of hang out for a while and then leave.

We really don't have a chance when we go to Indy because we have always have testing -- like at Watkins Glen -- and by the time you get done there you go home and then come right back up here. It's just pretty busy.

Q: Now, to skip backwards -- or forwards -- for a minute. Shana, you've got to be excited because they just announced Darlington is back on the schedule for next year?

Shana: Yeah!

Jeremy: That's cool, isn't it?

Q: Because that's your home track, right?

Shana: That's my home track and that's where I met Jeremy, so I love it. I love going to Darlington. I don't know -- I just think it's great racing -- just like Rockingham was. I miss Rockingham and I hope Darlington stays on the schedule for a long time because I think that was a special race.

Especially under the lights because there's nothing like it -- just good old racing and I get to see my family because they all come down. I make the trip home to see my grandmother and some of my friends.So it's fun. That's about the closest I get to going home, which doesn't happen that often.

Jeremy: And when you think of tradition, Darlington is probably the foundation of a huge part of the sport -- Darlington. Yeah, you think of Daytona and yeah, that's No. 1 -- but what's the second one? It's got to be Darlington -- you know what I mean? That's just part of it. That's a big deal and I'm glad to see it back on the schedule.

Shana: I hope it stays on there for a long time.

Jeremy: It needs to.

Word association: The Brickyard

The yard of bricks

Jeremy: "Heeee's on it. He just crossed the bricks."

Shana: I wanna kiss 'em

Indy cars

Jeremy: Fast.

Shana: Danica Patrick.

Midwestern summer

Jeremy: Dehydrated.

Shana: Miserably hot.