The Mayfields: Texas

All across the circuit we're seeing various remodeling jobs -- but if you guys had engineering degrees and unlimited finances, what would be at the top of your list for upgrading Nextel Cup racetracks?

Jeremy: Well, to start with, Texas is one of my favorite racetracks on the entire series, and I like going there. And it is definitely one of the coolest facilities that we go to.

	Shana and Jeremy Mayfield
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I remember when we first went there, we went out to qualify and water was leaking up through the racetrack, and everything else -- so they've fixed that and made it a lot better already.

But I don't know what I'd do, all around, to the rest of the facilities.

Shana: I don't know about the facilities in general, but I think they've got to do something to make the racing a little more exciting at certain places that we're going.

It seems like the racing is getting a little predictable at certain racetracks that we go to, anymore.

You see the same cars running well at certain places and I don't know -- but it just seems like you more or less can predict who's going to run good, wherever we are.

I don't know, but you kind of have to create a more level playing field for everybody, somehow and get the racing back to being racing.

It's getting -- I wouldn't say it's boring, now -- but it's just not as fun to watch anymore, at certain places.

It's to the point where you can go, 'OK, you can kind of guess what's going to happen so you can just turn it on for the last five laps and watch it.'

Whereas, the last two weeks it's been pretty exciting and people have wanted to watch the whole thing to see what's going to happen. So I think you've kind of got to get the Martinsville and Bristol feel everywhere you go, somehow.

I don't know how to do that, but if I knew how I'd be a billionaire.

Jeremy: You'd be Bruton Smith.

Shana: Well, Jeremy already has a redneck engineering degree so he should have some kind of answer.

Jeremy: Yeah, but I don't want to share all of my secrets right here, right now.

But I think Shana's right about the racing. You see all these racetracks going up and they're a mile, mile-and-a-half tracks and all this stuff -- the last ones that have been built, Kansas, Chicago and all those places like that.

And then, they're repaving Las Vegas, and stuff, but like you said, if they just go back and make it the same kind of racetrack, you haven't gained anything, as far as the racing goes.

I know about changing all the banking to progressive banking and all that stuff, but I haven't seen that do anything yet, either, for the racing part of it.

To make better racing, you've got to make smaller racetracks. You know, Richmond and places like that are always the best shows.

And then they took away one of the racetracks that always put on good races -- Darlington. And then you've got Rockingham. It was always a great race at Rockingham -- three-wide and a great show.

And you don't replace any of those racetracks with that size, or that style of racetrack.

Jeremy Mayfield Texas Statistics Year St. Fin. Laps Status 1997 20 32 200 handling 1998 1 23 331 running 1999 27 5 334 running 2000 31 6 334 running 2001 14 22 331 running 2002 7 18 332 running 2003 27 25 332 running 2004 21 34 293 crash 2005 2 11 334 running 2005 5 35 330 running

Shana: That's right. Facilities like that put the driver into the deal a lot more.

Now, you've got these big racetracks and it all comes down to aerodynamics.

Jeremy: And the motor.

Shana: When you went to tracks like Richmond and Rockingham and Bristol and Martinsville, you've really got the driver involved. You've got to get up on the wheel and it's hardcore racing.

And that's what fans like to see. They like to see the back from the south, short track, get down on it action with rivalries and all this kind of racing going on.

And somehow you've got to get that feel back, every week, and I don't know how you'd do it. Like I said, if I did I'd be super rich and I wouldn't have to be talking to you.

Jeremy: The thing about it is, Bristol was great racing, and Martinsville's good -- so that ought to tell you something, you know?

To any degree, do you feel like the Car of Tomorrow is going to solve any of those issues?

Jeremy: It might, but I don't know.

Shana: Every time you solve an issue, more issues arise.

Jeremy: Yeah.

Shana: So it may solve something, but it's going to cause some other conflict somewhere else.

Jeremy: Every time there's an action, there has to be a reaction.

Shana: That was a good one, babe.

Jeremy: That's when the engineering part of me comes out.

How close is Evernham Motorsports to getting its first Car of Tomorrow on the track?

Credit: Autostock

Jeremy: Real close. I was there the other day and it's back in the chassis shop a couple weeks ago and they've already got the chassis done.

I'm not exactly sure where they are with the rest of the car yet, but I know it's back in R&D getting done, so it won't be long.

I'm sure we'll be able to test it at Lowe's at the end of May, right after the 600. As soon as it gets done, I'm sure we'll be testing it somewhere, either for NASCAR or for ourselves.

I'm sure they've got that all planned out, but it's cool and it's pretty neat looking. It was better than I thought, as far as the chassis went, so that was pretty cool.

Big changes are in the works at Las Vegas, including progressive banking, so do you feel like when they did that at Homestead it was a big improvement?

Jeremy: As far as Vegas, I don't know if it will be a better race, but it will be a different race. What happens when they change the racetrack is that's all they talk about when you go there.

And Humpy [Wheeler] and Bruton [Smith] like that kind of stuff. So they like it when you go there and talk about issues, you know?

They like it when you're talking about the 'new progressive banking' or the 'new Fan Zone,' you know -- so I don't know if that's all about the racing, or the racetrack.

Shana: You'd think, by now and after spending all this money, that they would know what makes good racing and they wouldn't have to go back and re-do everything all the time.

And that's all you're hearing about anymore, is re-paving and re-doing. Well hell -- you know what good racing is because 30 years ago you built racetracks that provided some of the best racing -- or even 50 years ago.

Jeremy: But they can't reproduce that concept.

Shana: And they're going back and spending millions of dollars and you go, 'OK, you got Rockingham sitting over here by itself with no one racing there, and Darlington with one race ... .'

And those places provided the best places. I understand they're trying to hit the mainstream media but there again, back there you're talking about the better racing.

Credit: Autostock

And who knows -- it might be better in Vegas, but with the millions of dollars that have been spent, I hope so, because here we go again, trying to make things better when you could have just built something that was right in the first place.

Or you could use something you have that's already sitting here that's just as good -- if not better -- but just in the wrong place.

Jeremy: And I'll tell you what ticks you off, when they spend all this money and make all these improvements -- and then you go to the garage area and you say, 'hey, where's the restrooms?'

How many people are in the infield? And there are two restrooms with two stalls in them. That's not good.

Shana: And then at Charlotte, they make all these improvements but in our motorhome lot they've got us parked all over the top of each other, far away from everything.

Make some improvements on our end, to help us out a little bit.

Jeremy: And then we'll say more good things about the racetrack .

Shana: Exactly. Bribe 'em.

Your old teammate, Rusty Wallace, got involved with a racetrack project in Iowa, where they built a Richmond copy, I guess. But you don't hear too much about it, so is that a case where it's the right thing in the wrong place?

Jeremy: Yeah.

Shana: I think that's very unfortunate.

Jeremy: And it's probably going to be a good racetrack because you've got a guy who knows what it takes to have good racing, with Rusty involved.

So you've got a racetrack that you can race at, but we don't race there, either.

Shana: And you probably don't hear about it because he's not one of the big track owners that are involved in NASCAR right now. And that's what sucks, because it probably will be a great racetrack.

And I don't think Iowa and the center of the country is a market we've tapped into yet, so it could be a big thing. You just don't know.

Jeremy: When you look at it, there are two big companies that own the majority of the racetracks that NASCAR races at -- Bruton's and ISC.

And Bruton's tracks are the ones that we're all the time rebuilding and repaving and all that stuff, so I don't know.

We're going back to that engineering thing, and if we had all the money in the world -- but you know what we need?

Give us a way in and out of these places, for both the competitors and the fans. Don't make us wait in traffic, because before long, people are going to be pissed off, waiting in traffic.

They're packing these places everywhere we go, and then you can't get the people out.

Shana: Especially with gas prices as high as they are, hell, you burn a gallon of gas just sitting there waiting to go somewhere -- or nowhere, which is what it is most of the time.

Is that maybe just the price of success, and you can't escape it?

Jeremy: No, you could. All you've got to do it use the road systems that are already there.

Shana: All you've got to do is use common sense. Use that engineering degree. You're sitting here in traffic at Charlotte and there's an Interstate right there.

Jeremy: That you can't even use.

Shana: It's not a half-mile up the road, and they block it off.

Jeremy: It goes right straight into the racetrack, and you can't use it.

Shana: You go to Texas, and there's an Interstate right outside the track and they want to direct you all different ways except where you need to go.

Just do the common sense thing and let traffic flow. Get back to natural engineering -- and let things happen the way they're supposed to happen, and it would all be so much simpler.

Jeremy: That would be a science, wouldn't it.

Shana: Whatever the hell it is. I think that's the basis of life.

Jeremy: No, it's called common sense. If you've got an Interstate, use it. Right?

Shana: They've got 50 million cops directing traffic, but if you just let people go the way they're supposed to go it would go so much easier.

Jeremy: That would help a lot of the racetracks, and a lot of the fans. I guarantee you all of the fans complain about the traffic getting in and out of the racetracks.

Shana: But that's another way you keep them there to spend money.

Jeremy: And the reason they complain about it, is that they know they've got to go left to get on the Interstate and go home, and [the police] are like, 'No, sir -- you've got to go right and go nine miles that way and then turn around and go all the way around the racetrack and get back in the traffic over there.

'You can do a big doughnut over there and stay there about two hours, and then come back the way you wanted to go.'

Shana: Or stay here and eat 50 million hotdogs and buy more souvenirs and put more money in the track's pocket.

Jeremy: And biscuits.

Word Assocation

10-gallon hat

Jeremy: Good match for a boot trophy.

Shana: Cowboys.

Spurs

Jeremy: Got 'em.

Shana: They hurt.

Brisket

Jeremy: Pure Texas.

Shana: Nasty.