Jeremy Mayfield's most recent Cup win came last August at Michigan. Credit: Autostock

Mayfield hopes front-row start turns 'terrible' year

DOVER, Del. -- If Evernham Motorsports' Jeremy Mayfield and his No. 19 Dodge Charger team are simply racing for pride the rest of this season, the direction they've hit in recent weeks is definitely promising.

Mayfield, the only Evernham driver to make the first two editions of the Chase for the Nextel Cup, qualified on the front row Friday for the Neighborhood Excellence 400 presented by Bank of America at Dover International Speedway.

	Jeremy Mayfled started alongside teammate Scott Riggs for the Coca-Cola 600. Credit: Autostock
	Inside the Numbers Jeremy Mayfield's 2006 results Race Start Finish Status Daytona 26 36 running California 21 22 running Las Vegas 24 25 running Atlanta 20 41 running Bristol 10 16 running Martinsville 23 26 engine Texas 34 31 running Phoenix 28 26 running Talladega 36 13 running Richmond 38 32 running Darlington 30 38 running Charlotte 2 15 running Average 24.3 26.8

It's the second week in a row that Mayfield's qualified second, but when he and Ryan Newman lead the 43-car field to the green Sunday, the irony will hang over them heavier than the steamy humidity plaguing the Delaware coast.

Both men are two-time Chase competitors and both are mired deep in the standings this season. Mayfield, in particular, has been plagued by abysmal luck and is 35th in the owner standings.

The one thing that's been a constant for him and his crew, led by team director Chris Andrews, is high spirits that were much in evidence at Dover.

"We are good enough to run in the top 15 every week," Andrews said. "We have run in the top 15 a lot, we just haven't finished there.

"We plan to win the race every week and we bring cars that are capable of winning races. Obviously Kasey [Kahne, teammate] has won three races and Scott Riggs has run well at a lot of racetracks.

"We've run well at a lot of racetracks and just not been able to finish. We hope to run better every week and to work on finishing where we deserve. I don't expect we'll make the Chase from where we are in the points right now, but we can certainly win some races."

Mayfield is taking the same tack.

"I'm not frustrated about the points anymore -- I'm over that," Mayfield said. "I've crossed the hump on being frustrated. It's been a weird year for me. It's been terrible."

According to Andrews, Mayfield's been involved in five accidents this season. If that weren't bad enough, the team had another engine failure.

It leaves them far from the top 10 and battling to remain in the locked-into-the-starting-field top 35.

"We keep hammering and you get tough," Mayfield said. "It's like, 'bring it on. Is that all you've got?' That's our attitude right now.

"We had trouble in the all-star race and came back with a good car last week [in the Coca-Cola 600] and had some trouble there."

	Jeremy Mayfield and his two teammates ran well at Lowe's, with Mayfield bringing home a 15th-place finish. Credit: Autostock
	ALSO •   Mayfield's team penalized 25 points for violation at LMS •   Mayfield qualifies second for 600, alongside teammate

The "trouble" at Lowe's Motor Speedway was a collapsed spring that left the car too low in a random post-race inspection after finishing 15th. The car was 1/16th of an inch under the quarter-inch tolerance NASCAR gives teams.

The penalties included 25-point deductions for Mayfield and owner Ray Evernham. Although Andrews said the infraction was "inadvertent," it left Mayfield 56 points behind 34th-place Dave Blaney and 114 points ahead of 36th-place Scott Wimmer in the owner standings.

"They give us rules and we were outside those tolerances, so the penalty was fair," Andrews said. "When other people have had similar situations, everyone speculates about what they were doing or how they were cheating.

"This was nothing like that, it was just slightly outside the tolerances. But there are things in 16th-inch and 8th-inch increments that will make these cars go faster and slower every week -- and everyone knows what they are.

"We push everything as hard as we can, we came up random for inspection and we were a 16th low. Some of the adjustments we made during the race might have contributed to that, but when you make the adjustments during the race you have to think about that."

Mayfield said the current set-up practices leave the cars with very little front suspension travel at speed.

"I felt something going in the [Coca-Cola 600]," Mayfield said. "I thought a spring had collapsed on us, and that's what happened. That's what you've got [because] the springs we run these days can't physically hold the car up."

At Dover on Friday, Mayfield overcame a loose car that he said cost him his first Bud Pole since September 2004, also at Dover.

Jeremy Mayfield's crew tuned his car good enough to qualify second for the Coca-Cola 600. Credit: Autostock

Inside the Numbers Jeremy Mayfield's Dover statistics Year Start Finish Status 1994 33 24 running 1995 38 17 running   10 19 running 1996 39 12 running   36 15 running 1997 25 4 running   24 23 running 1998 12 5 running   28 3 running 1999 9 9 out of gas   4 22 running 2000 5 37 engine   1 35 engine 2001 24 34 transmission   7 42 crash 2002 24 35 running   11 20 running 2003 3 21 running   25 2 running 2004 1 8 running   1 7 running 2005 13 14 running   12 7 running Average 16.7 18.0

"We got real loose coming to the green, and I thought for sure we were going to wreck," Mayfield said. "I gathered my thoughts and got in a good second lap.

"I know if I had got my first lap we would have beat [Newman]. This is my racetrack [so] it'll probably be a good race for us Sunday."

Given the point situation -- 439 out of 10th with 14 races remaining until the cutoff to the Chase -- Mayfield isn't waiting until mid-summer to declare the point of no return.

"We have to get better," Mayfield said. "We've got to step it up -- we don't have a choice."

Mayfield said sending engineer Josh Browne to the racetrack to work with him is paying off.

"He's been with us the past three or four weeks, and he's helped bridge that communication gap," Mayfield said of Browne. "I really feel confident with what he's done and what he's done with me in the past.

"We're all working together well. It hasn't shown yet. Last week we were better than where we finished, it cost us some points, but I'm not worried about points now.

"We've just got to worry about making races now and getting high enough in the points not to miss them. I'm proud of these guys."

"We don't really feel like we're a 35th place team -- but a lot of people have suggested we're really struggling," Andrews said. "We have struggled at a few races this year, but I think everybody in the garage has struggled at a few races.

"But we're finally getting to qualify better and we're racing better -- and hopefully we'll start finishing some races better here, real soon."