The Mayfields: The Glen

Throughout the 2006 season the Mayfields, Evernham Motorsports' Nextel Cup driver Jeremy and his wife, Shana, offer an insightful, irreverent and sometimes downright wacky look at the week-to-week happenings around the circuit -- and beyond.

	Jeremy and Shana Mayfield Credit: Autostock
	JEREMY MAYFIELD •   Driver Page •   2006 Stats •   Superstore: Mayfield gear •   Dodge Fast Track •   Jeremy's official Web site

This week, Silly Season took an incomprehensible turn for Mayfield, a five-time winner in the Cup Series -- as he discovered he wouldn't be driving the No. 19 Dodge for Evernham at this weekend's AMD at The Glen.

It eliminated from their itinerary a trip that the Mayfields had mixed feelings about, anyway. However, it increased speculations about their future NASCAR address.

This week: Massacre at The Glen?

Q: Jeremy, you've had a pretty decent record at Watkins Glen, with a worst finish of 16th in your last five races, but you got some news from your business manager Monday that put your next road race on hold.

Jeremy Mayfield: We were looking forward to going to Watkins Glen this weekend, because lately I've run well there and I love that racetrack. But obviously, now we're not going.

I don't know. It's pretty disappointing that we're not going. We felt like, given our recent results there, we had a chance to make something happen.

Shana Mayfield: It's a shock.

Jeremy Mayfield: It's a big shock, for sure -- especially the way it happened.

Shana Mayfield: We can't really comment on a lot of the details and we don't really want to, but it happened and we're dealing with it.

Jeremy Mayfield: You just have to move on, to keep going forward. We'll move on from here, and we certainly appreciate all the support that we've been hearing about from our fans. That means more than I could ever say.

Shana Mayfield: Absolutely. We want to tell all the fans that we will be back. It may be sooner rather than later, we don't really know right now.

But we appreciate the way that the fans have stood beside us through all of that. We're going to take some time, now, to finish up the house and to gather our thoughts and go on from here.

ALSO Bill Elliott will be in the No. 19 Dodge that Mayfield has driven for Evernham since 2002 this weekend at Watkins Glen International.  •   Complete story, click here

Q: Before you got the news about your team's driver change, you were anticipating one of the more radical shifts the series undergoes -- from Indy to Watkins Glen. What's that like?

Shana Mayfield: Oh, God. It's so different.

Jeremy Mayfield: It really is.

Shana Mayfield: It's like nothing I've ever experienced. And that's not a bad thing; it's just, like, the backwoods. You literally feel like you're in the middle of nowhere.

Jeremy Mayfield: It's almost sort of like, the boondocks.

Shana Mayfield: Yeah -- BFE. You're far from anything, so I don't know, because you go from Indy, which is like, all kinds of hoopla right in the middle of downtown, with shopping, restaurants and everything going on, to Watkins Glen.

That's where it's like, 'Oh my God. . .' Where is there a Pantry or where is there somewhere to stop and get something to drink? There is just nothing going on.

Jeremy Mayfield: And whatever you do, don't ask for sweet tea.

Shana Mayfield: Oh my God, yeah.

Jeremy Mayfield: They'll look at you real funny -- give you this real weird look and say "Why don't you just put sugar in it?"

Shana Mayfield: They say, "we got tea, but it's unsweetened -- we'll give you sugar." It's not the same. Sweet tea you have to make it hot and put the sugar in while it's still hot.

Jeremy Mayfield: But it's still cool to go from Indy to Watkins Glen, because it really is a cool place. The race fans are unbelievable up there. There are race fans -- and racetracks -- up there like you wouldn't believe.

Shana Mayfield: I think the race fans are cool, but other than that, I'm going to be real honest with you, there's nothing that excites me up there.

Jeremy Mayfield: Well, there's not a lot to do, for sure.

Shana Mayfield: And road racing is hard, as a spectator sport, when you're sitting in one spot, because it's so big, you can't really see a lot. So it's hard for me to really get into it if I can't really tell what's going on.

Jeremy Mayfield has been driving the No. 19 Dodge since 2002.

Inside the Numbers Jeremy Mayfield's 2006 stats 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 Michigan 18 36 running Sonoma 32 22 running Daytona 42 36 running Chicago 16 24 running Loudon 37 29 running Pocono 22 37 running Indy 15 41 suspension Average 23.9 27.9

Jeremy Mayfield: It's just road-course racing -- don't go slamming it too bad.

Shana Mayfield: I'm not slamming it, I'm just saying as a spectator, and for me as a wife sitting down on the pit box, it's hard to follow.

Jeremy Mayfield: But TV does a good job with that, and the race is good. It's always good racing, you know?

Shana Mayfield: It's probably OK for them watching on TV, but I can only see so much.

Jeremy Mayfield: Then watch the TV monitor behind the pit box. Or you need to get you one of those Nextel Fan Views. Those are cool as hell.

Shana Mayfield: Yeah, good idea. I think that little Nextel thing is so cool, especially for there.

Jeremy Mayfield: You're right. For a road course race, that would really be a good thing to have.

Q: Shana, did you ever consider doing anything different, like walking out into the infield?

Shana Mayfield: I don't know.

Jeremy Mayfield: You walk out into the infield there, and it's cool. It's the next best thing to Talladega.

Shana Mayfield: We've taken the dogs out and walked them around, before. But you know me. I have found a T.J. Maxx not far from there.

Jeremy Mayfield: She knows where the malls are, that's for sure.

Shana Mayfield: I can always find something to do. And I kind of look forward to it, especially after Indy, because Jeremy and I are pretty drained by everything that goes on there -- taking what happened this week.

It used to be kind of fun to go to Watkins Glen and watch a movie or just hang out in the motorhome. We were planning on going to see Talladega Nights up there, because it came out last weekend.

We wanted to go see that, so that will give us something fun to do and take our minds off things for a couple hours. We were going to take the girls and just relax -- so now we'll just try to do the same thing here.

You need that sometimes, especially now after moving, and Indy -- and this latest development. We were planning on the Glen being a little bit of a wind-down for us, so we'll see what happens, now.

Jeremy Mayfield: But the nearest theater up there would have been 182 miles away.

Shana Mayfield: No it's not -- it's right by where we fly into, in Elmira, isn't it?

Jeremy Mayfield: Yeah, Elmira, about 175 miles away.

Shana Mayfield: No, it's not -- but we always get lost every time we'd go there; so maybe it's a good thing we're not. All I could ever say was, "How many years have you been coming here, and you still get lost?"

Jeremy Mayfield: See, everybody's got cool routes to get there, but they all go up the hills and down the hills and behind the hills. And the dirt roads are so cool.

We still travel the dirt roads to get in and out of there. You want to talk about the coolest -- well, it is cool. I know one thing; you about have to climb a mountain to get up to the racetrack.

Those are some of the steepest hills I've ever been on.

Shana Mayfield: Bill Elliott flew with us a couple weeks ago and he had the best idea. He thought they should run Watkins Glen backwards.

Jeremy Mayfield: Oh yeah, switch it up everywhere we go, based on a roll of the dice every week. Wouldn't that be something?

Shana Mayfield: I think that's a cool idea, just for something different. You wouldn't know which way you were going until you got there.

Jeremy Mayfield: We thought about that, but when you got to the last turn, which is now Turn 1, there wouldn't be any gravel traps there to catch you -- only grandstands.

Shana Mayfield: But Bill really believed it would work, and he said he'd been thinking about it.

Jeremy Mayfield: He was supposed to go see Mike Helton last week and talk about it, but I don't believe he ever did [laughing].

WORD ASSOCIATION: Watkins Glen

Backwoods
Jeremy Mayfield: Love it. Backwoods Billy's, back home.
Shana Mayfield: Scary.

Hills
Jeremy Mayfield: Damned steep, I know that.
Shana Mayfield: Twists and turns.

Dirt roads
Jeremy Mayfield: Junior Johnson.
Shana Mayfield: Clay.