The Mayfields: California

In 2005, Nextel Cup driver Jeremy Mayfield and his wife, Shana, offered their roadmap to a venue-by-venue tour of the entire season.

In 2006, a new season brings a new spin on the concept; so join "The Mayfields" for an insightful, irreverent and sometimes downright wacky look at the week-to-week happenings around the Nextel Cup circuit -- and beyond.

This week: Integrity in racing, for the fans' sake

Q: After what happened at Daytona, it seems like integrity in racing has stepped up to the forefront, and it's unfortunate, because as Jimmie Johnson should be enjoying the biggest win of his career, he has to spend half his time talking about his "cheating crew chief." For you guys, how does integrity in racing play in the garage and the motorhome lot?

	Shana and Jeremy Mayfield
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Jeremy Mayfield: I'm hoping I see all three sides of the deal a little bit. If you're a racer and you're at that level of your career -- you're a Nextel Cup driver, or even if you're in the Busch or Craftsman Truck Series, but especially in the Cup Series -- you've experienced a lot of things along the way.

You've got a lot of experience at pushing the envelope and stretching things as far as they'll go. And sometimes you get caught.

I don't really think it's cheating. They call it cheating, but it's not really cheating unless you do get caught, so I'm not sure about that.

It's hard for me to make a call on that because I really do see both sides of the deal: The team's side and NASCAR's.

I know NASCAR's got to do something to police it, and how they police it is their deal.

I think it's bad to look at it and say, 'Chad [Knaus] had an adjustable track bar mount that raised the rear window up,' or whatever it was, and then you just wear him out over it.

Then again, NASCAR has to do their job and do their part, but heck -- it was a pretty good idea, I thought.

I'm just wondering why the other Hendrick teams didn't do it? Either the inspectors didn't see it or maybe they didn't have them on there. I'm not sure.

Shana Mayfield: My only thing with this whole situation is that there are so many ways to cheat, that either I've seen, or when you look back, you see Reed Sorenson's crew chief last year got suspended and they got points taken away.

Two years ago, McMurray's car didn't fit a template, they took his car and points were taken away from him. I just don't understand the protocol of when points are taken and when they aren't.

So that's my concern because it's got the fans confused and us a little confused, too, because as you say, the integrity of the sport is in question because they want to maintain integrity but it's a hard protocol to maintain: Exactly where the line is and how do you differentiate from more extreme on the cheating end to not so extreme?

It would help to know who was going to get penalized and why some are gone three weeks and some are gone six weeks and why some are gone two. So it's kind of confusing, a little bit.

Jeremy Mayfield: I don't think you're saying, 'Why didn't they get points taken away?' Because we could care less how they handle that.

Shana Mayfield: No, I'm not saying that. I just think on the fans' side it's a little confusing for them because I know it's confusing for us and we live it every week.

Jeremy Mayfield: Which in turn creates this questionable part of the sport that we're experiencing right now.

Shana Mayfield: Right -- the questionable part of the protocol and how does NASCAR come up with their decision-making when it comes to penalties?

You saw what happened to Terry Labonte and his team -- they got docked points but from what I understand they leased the engine and the carburetor, which would be legal this week at California, just came with it.

They didn't intentionally do anything but they got docked points and fined. It's just kind of confusing and I don't think a lot of people understand it.

Jeremy Mayfield: Right, which then goes back to, if the fans are confused, they're ultimately the ones that control this, and that's where the problem lies.

Stats at a Glance Mayfield at California Year St. Fin. Laps Status 1997 21 12 249 running 1998 2 2 250 running 1999 14 7 250 running 2000 24 1 250 running 2001 3 5 250 running 2002 14 38 189 engine 2003 11 35 233 crash 2004 20 14 249 running 2004 2 16 250 running 2005 3 28 248 running 2005 13 26 254 running

Shana Mayfield: Jeremy has said this before: 'There are so many rules -- why can't we just race?'

It's taken away from the racing because it's controversial now with the rules and it's getting more confusing every week where more people are scared to do anything.

Jeremy and I were talking before about how it's taking away the creativity in the sport. Where can you go, even if it's in a gray area, because you don't know what's going to happen to you if you do something.

People are kind of getting scared to step a certain way because you don't know if a rule is going to pop up or if they're going to change it.

Jeremy Mayfield: I think it's a situation, too, where a lot of guys have gotten caught for doing things last year and this year, that I don't really know that they intentionally tried to do it.

Like, they come in after the race and the car might have been a little low at one point, or vice versa, but now they've put themselves in the gray area and they don't even know how they got there.

I just think that we're to the point in the sport itself that NASCAR needs to have a standard procedure on how they go about doing things.

Shana Mayfield: It's got to be easier -- it's got to be able to be put down in black and white. And if something happens, make the decision; don't say 'Something may happen later.'

Jeremy Mayfield: But on the other hand, I can remember when -- and it wasn't very many years ago -- when if someone was a little low or light or whatever the problem was, like my roof when I won at California, when I stepped on it and made it a little bit low. But when it rolled through the height sticks it was low and that puts NASCAR in a weird situation, too, because where is that gray area? OK, the rule says this, but it doesn't explain the details of whatever.

Jeremy Mayfield in his office. Credit: Autostock

And if you stretch it a little bit, they've got to make that judgment call and that's where a lot of this comes from, too. It's all about the judgment at that point in time on that particular incident.

There are so many of them and so many things that you can do or get caught with, it doesn't make it any easier on NASCAR and it's tough on both ends, I think.

Shana Mayfield: Again, I think it's just confusing for the fans and for us, too. I don't know what the solution is and I'm not saying I do.

I wouldn't want to be in NASCAR's shoes and I wouldn't want to be in the crew chief's shoes or even the racer's shoes right now because I don't think it's something you want to deal with, especially when the Daytona 500 is being overshadowed with controversy.

It's a huge race and any race you don't want overshadowed with anything. It's just like Denny Hamlin winning the Budweiser Shootout -- that was overshadowed by Stewart talking about bump drafting, so here you go again.

It's like, let 'em race, let people get the recognition they deserve but there again, what's the answer to the problems we can't seem to get away from?

Jeremy Mayfield: But what I think nobody wants to see the sport get to where every week we're arguing -- officials against the drives, owners or whatever it is.

Just think if you watched football and every Sunday the whole game was about the referees arguing with the coaches or whoever.

Shana Mayfield: Or doing nothing but arguing about bad calls.

Jeremy Mayfield: It would be bad. You do see that some, but it just seems like it's building up in our sport, a little bit more than it ever has right now.

Q: As a driver, how much do you want to know about what's going on, because in the driver/crew chief relationship, you've got to have supreme confidence in each other?

Jeremy Mayfield: I know where you're going with this: How come the crew chief can get suspended and the driver doesn't, and how come sometimes the driver or owner loses points and sometimes they don't?

A lot of that is, if the driver is blatantly doing something inside of the car, like lowering the roof down or using the traction control, or whatever they have going on, then NASCAR has to look at the driver and the crew chief, because he sure knew.

Jeremy Mayfield and teammate Kasey Kahne.

But if you're a little bit low at the end of the race, we don't know, as drivers, exactly how many rounds of wedge you might have put in or taken out.

That's what I mean when I say some of this stuff is honest mistakes -- and it's not even mistakes, it's just part of racing. You get wear and tear on the cars, the springs and shocks and whatever. At the end of these races, these things are about wore out and when you roll through the height sticks, if it's just a little bit low, like an eighth-inch low -- where's the gray area there?

If it gets in the red on the height sticks, you're done. It's just made a tighter margin on every little detail, but there again, what I'm saying is there's a tighter margin and there are more templates than we've ever had.

They're down to 60-thousandths here and they've got to be perfect on all of the cars -- but yet, when something ain't right, there are no templates yet for what the penalties are.

Shana Mayfield: But how much do you want to know?

Jeremy Mayfield: Oh yeah -- if I'm there doing something, I want to know about it but if I'm not, I don't really care.

I don't know that we really do a lot anyway, as far as cheating stuff. I'm not saying that we don't max the templates out and all that stuff, like everybody does, but ...

Shana Mayfield: You've got to have an edge somewhere, not necessarily cheating -- but you've got to get all you can get or you wouldn't be a top-tier race team.

Since they're doing everything they can do to keep the playing field level, there's got to be a competitive edge somewhere -- whether it's on pit road or getting all you can get out of your car.

It's got to come down to something.

Jeremy Mayfield: Then again, just when you think you've got the answer, something weird will come up again, this week.

Shana Mayfield: I wouldn't want to be NASCAR, that's for sure.

Word Association: California

• Arnold (the Governor)
Jeremy Mayfield: Gary Coleman: "Whatcha talkin' about, Willis?
Shana Mayfield: Terminator.

• L.A. Lakers
Jeremy Mayfield: Paula Abdul, the Laker Girl.
Shana Mayfield: Suck without Shaq.

•Earthquakes
Jeremy Mayfield: Volcanoes.
Shana Mayfield: San Andreas Fault.