The Mayfields: Michigan

This week the Mayfields return to Michigan International Speedway, site of this weekend's 3M Performance 400 but also the place where Jeremy last won, in August 2005.

This week: Not just putting around ...

	Jeremy and Shana Mayfield Credit: Autostock
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Q: Since we're going back to Michigan, the question on most everyone's mind is: What's going on with the great putt-putt challenge?

Shana: Ha! I'm so ready to take him. He'll probably come up with some B.S. excuse again of why he can't do it -- like meetings with the team director, or a meeting with the team owner -- something like that.

Jeremy: I'm willing and ready.

Shana: Yeah, right.

Jeremy: I'm going to take my frustrations out on her in a putt-putt game.

Shana: I'm so ready -- so I want everyone to make sure they ask us about it next week. So I can tell you how I kicked his a--.

Jeremy: We'd have already had this over with if Shana hadn't of kept chickening out.

Shana: No. That's definitely not true. He's the candy a-- because every time we drive by a course he's moaning, 'Oh, I don't feel like stopping.'

This time, he's history. He forgets that I grew up in the golf capital of the world -- Myrtle Beach, S.C. I've been a golfer since I was 8 years old, so I'll take him to Par 3, putt-putt -- wherever he wants to go and we'll go at it.

Q: You want to talk about frustrations, between the ill luck Jeremy's had on the racetrack and if you're kicking his butt in putt-putt -- you need to be careful not to go to a facility that's anywhere near a roadway, in case he starts driving 'em sideways off the tee box, right?

Shana: He does anyway. He always hits 'em a little off-center of where they're supposed to go. I told him we just need to go to the driving range, but he's scared to do that, too.

He's scared I'll hit it further than him.

Jeremy: Oh yeah -- well, listening to all this B.S. that's going on -- ask her who won the last game we played?

Shana: Yeah, because I had to let him putt over, about five or six times.

Jeremy: No, why don't you just explain who won?

Shana: He won, by default only -- only because I was a kind player and let him win.

Jeremy: Please tell the audience out there who won, would you?

Shana: I gave you a couple mulligans.

Jeremy: But who won?

Shana: I won, really.

Q: Jeremy, how many clubs you got in your bag when you go out to putt-putt?

Jeremy: Usually anywhere from three to six.

Shana: He couldn't tell a driver from a putter if you asked him to -- or a 9-iron. He wouldn't know the difference.

Jeremy: No -- I could tell the difference between a driver and a putter, that's for damn sure.

Shana: He acts like his putter is his driver, sometimes. Actually, he just said that sometimes when he's driving, he feels like a putter.

Jeremy: Yeah.

Shana: I've watched him putt down the straightaways a couple of times this year.

Jeremy Mayfield ranks 32nd in the points heading to Michigan. 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 Dover 2 18 running Pocono 26 23 running Average 22.9 25.9

Q: Well, going back to Michigan -- getting your butt handed to you on the putt-putt track aside, in reading your comments, Jeremy, you said you'd take another fuel mileage win, but you'd just as soon out-horsepower 'em and let the cautions fall in your favor, didn't you?

Jeremy: That's what I'd rather do, but I'd sure take a win no matter how we could get it, you know?

I'll tell you what was funny about beating guys on fuel mileage last year, was seeing everybody on pit road and how [expletive] off they were. I saw all those crew chiefs, man, and they were going, 'Man, the 19!'

It's funny, because you don't want to get beat by fuel mileage, but when you do beat a guy on fuel mileage, the whole pit road is [expletive] off at you, because they know they could have done the same thing if they did it right.

Shana: And it's funny, because the only person I can remember saying anything that wasn't negative, that I read, was Ryan Newman -- because remember, he won, like, eight races on fuel mileage a couple years ago.

So he was like, 'Well, you know, you win some like that -- and we won a lot of them.' It's funny when you see guys who've won a lot on fuel mileage, and they don't get all wound up over it -- with their crew chiefs being all [expletive] off and stuff.

But you take a win however you can get it.

Jeremy: At the end of the day, a win is a win is a win.

Shana: That's right.

Jeremy: That's kind of like in putt-putt, when I asked her at the end of the day, 'Who won that game?'

Shana: Oh my God.

Jeremy: No one wants to know how -- all that matters is that I did.

Shana: Politics.

Jeremy: It's not how -- it's just a W -- and there have been a lot of races won like that, you know?

Q: Hey -- just an idle thought, but this is the second week in a row that eight or nine guys have got to go back and forth between Michigan and a Busch race, which this week is in Kentucky. Jeremy, since it's your home state, would you consider going along for a joy ride?

Shana: No.

Jeremy: I don't know if I'd hitch a ride with anybody, but I'd go back, just because I'm proud of the state of Kentucky, you know? I don't mind going back there.

Jeremy Mayfield's last Cup victory came at Michigan last August. Credit: Autostock

Inside the Numbers Jeremy Mayfield at Michigan Year Start Finish Status 1994 18 25 running   39 23 running 1995 9 22 running   9 12 running 1996 13 30 gas   39 20 running 1997 15 12 running   12 33 running 1998 15 5 running   8 7 running 1999 17 17 running   5 18 running 2000 22 41 engine   6 13 running 2001 9 4 running   19 13 running 2002 31 36 running   7 16 running 2003 20 13 running   40 28 running 2004 8 19 running   10 11 running 2005 5 22 running   11 1 running

Shana: We'd get some good eating, anyway.

Jeremy: It is good eating. And I like the state; I think it's cool. I've got a lot of good friends there and a lot of good memories.

But as far as hitching a ride with one of those guys going to Kentucky Speedway, they wouldn't end up in my neck of the woods, since I'm from Owensboro. I'd still have to drive a couple hours to get to where I'm from.

Shana: Yeah, but it would still be cool to go to Kentucky. Is that part of Kentucky far from Nashville -- far from the racetrack there?

Jeremy: Yeah, it is. But that's where it's beautiful. That part of the state, where the racetrack is, up around Lexington and all that is where all the horse farms are.

The grass is unbelievable, what it looks like.

Shana: It's bluegrass.

Jeremy: That's why they call it the Bluegrass State.

Q: Have you been following Kentucky Speedway's lawsuit with NASCAR, and what's your take on that whole deal?

Jeremy: I'm not sure -- I'm trying to stay clear of that whole deal. I don't really know what's going on with it.

Shana: He's trying to stay pretty quiet, say what's right and not really give his opinion on that.

Jeremy: That's because I don't know the details. I haven't really heard anything about it. I've known there's something going on there, but I'm not really sure what it is.

Q: If you took all the political crap away from it, would it be cool to race in Kentucky?

Shana: Oh yeah.

Jeremy: I'd love it. I think that there needs to be a race there. I think it's cool.

Shana: Why does everybody test there, anyway? Obviously you can go to Kentucky and learn a lot about your racecar, so a lot of people go there to test.

So I think being able to race there would be just as good, and if you watch the Busch race, it's always pretty entertaining.

Jeremy: And I'll tell you what -- you look at the racetrack itself, at the facility and it's second to none.

When you walk in there, you've got good garage areas, you've got enough grandstands, you've got parking -- it's right on the interstate. It's got everything it takes to have a Nextel Cup race.

So the reason why they don't have one, well, I don't know that. That's not my department, so I'll leave that alone.

Shana: We race in so many places; it's probably a case of, where do you fit it in on the schedule? Who do you take a race away from?

Jeremy: Well, nothing against Martinsville, but if you look at Martinsville, I think a lot of guys would rather be in Kentucky than going to Martinsville.

Shana: I think, in the future, if the sport keeps growing as it is, I think you'll only see us at these venues once a year -- and that may be all that each facility needs, you know?

Jeremy: It's a case of supply and demand, is what it is.

Shana: Actually though, if they built a track in New York, we'd have to hit that one, I believe, four or five times a year.

Jeremy: Yeah, right. But if we go to New York, it's going to be big, man.

Shana: I would just love that.

Jeremy: But if we were to go to Kentucky, it would be even bigger. Just ask me -- I'm from there.

Shana: If you go to Kentucky, you get mutton. If you go to New York City you get Manolo Blahnik. Which one would you rather have?

Jeremy: I'd get a hot dog -- or a doughnut.

Word Association: Michigan in June

Fuel Mileage
Jeremy: 52 laps.
Shana: Saved our [expletive] last year. Repeat.

Back-to-back
Jeremy: Ray and me. No fuel mileage this time.
Shana: We can only hope.

Putter
Jeremy: My deadly weapon.
Shana: I'm so much better -- I've got skills.