Jeremy Mayfield won last year's August race at Michigan. This year, he won't even be at the racetrack. Credit: Autostock

Mayfield knew 'the writing was on the wall'

Ousted driver expected to finish season with Evernham Motorsports

Much legal maneuvering has taken place the past two weeks to get Jeremy Mayfield out of the No. 19 Dodge at Evernham Motorsports and Elliott Sadler into it for Sunday's Nextel Cup race at Michigan International Speedway.

But the real maneuvering began more than three months ago.

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

That, Mayfield said, is when owner Ray Evernham suggested that he begin looking at options with other teams for the 2007 season.

"I knew then the writing was on the wall,'' Mayfield told NASCAR.COM on Tuesday. "We weren't running good, we weren't making changes on the team, and the owner says, 'If you want to, you can start looking.'

"That told me all I needed to know, so I did just that.''

Mayfield eventually struck a soon-to-be-announced deal that will land him in the new Toyota team of Bill Davis Racing next season. Sadler got his release from Robert Yates Racing that freed him to replace Mayfield.

The only surprise to Mayfield was that the changes occurred last week, when he was fired before Sunday's race at Watkins Glen International. Until then, Mayfield fully expected to finish out the season with EMS.

"It sucked pretty much,'' Mayfield said of sitting out Sunday's race. "It's something that nobody wants do, to sit home while races are going on. I guess Ray felt he had to do that and I have to live with it. It's part of it.

"It's not what I wanted to do, but something I had to do.''

Mayfield said he also didn't want to take Evernham to court last week, but was left with no choice when his boss since 2002 refused to pay him for the remainder of this season.

"That's what he wanted to do initially ... pay me nothing,'' said Mayfield, whose contract actually ran through next season with options for the following two years.

"It shouldn't have gotten to that point. He should have called me and said, 'Hey, we're going to do something different. How can we work things out?' That's not the way things happen. As a matter of fact, I still haven't talked to Ray myself.''

Mayfield said all his discussions with EMS have been through his business manager. While he would have appreciated a call from Evernham, who has insisted he and Mayfield are good friends throughout this process, he said there are no hard feelings.

And he doesn't blame Evernham for switching to Sadler now with the No. 19 out of the top 35 in owners' points guaranteed a spot in the field each week.

An official announcement on Sadler moving to the 19 and David Gilliland replacing Sadler in the No. 38 at RYR is expected as soon as legal details are complete.

"That is totally what I would do if I owned a team,'' Mayfield said. "I mean this, Ray Evernham was a good friend of mine and I don't know what happened. I hated that it happened.''

Mayfield had discussions with Doug Yates, the co-owner or RYR, about replacing Sadler at Michigan where he recorded his only win of 2005. He said RYR opted to move forward with Gilliland, who has been approved by NASCAR to drive in every race except Talladega Superspeedway.

"That's what I wanted to do so bad just to have a little fun with this,'' Mayfield said of the musical chairs. "It would have been real cool if I could have driven for them this week with Elliott in the 19.

"Obviously, they want to get started on their future and I can't blame them for that.''

Mayfield's biggest concern through the process has been reports that he's run poorly on purpose and trash-talked his owner with the hope of getting fired so he could sign with another team.

That came to a head in Chicago, where Mayfield seemingly questioned Evernham's commitment when asked why his owner was at the Truck Series race with developmental driver Erin Crocker instead of there helping turn his Cup team around.

Evernham flew to Chicago the next day and held a news conference with Mayfield as a show of support.

"I wasn't trying to get Ray to release me from my contract,'' Mayfield said. "He'd already given me that opportunity months ago, saying that if we wanted to go out and pursue other options, we could.

"But we were always going to fix the 19 and finish the year out. Then Sadler became available and they felt it would be better to put him in the car and get ready for next year.''

Mayfield said the frustration with the 19 team began last season when he struggled after making the Chase for the Nextel Cup for the second consecutive season.

Crew chief Richard "Slugger'' Labbe was replaced at the start of the Chase by Chris Andrews. Then during the offseason team director Kenny Francis and the rest of Mayfield's crew were moved to the No. 9 of teammate Kasey Kahne.

Evernham said last week that Mayfield signed off on the changes. Mayfield said it wasn't exactly that way.

"I never got asked, 'Hey, who do you want for a crew chief?' '' Mayfield said. "It was pretty much we're going to put Chris over there and move Kenny to the 9.

"You're in a situation where you don't have any say so at all, anyway, about the cars, people or nothing. Then they tell you they're going to make a change, what good would it have done to say anything about it?''

Evernham also said last week that Labbe asked to be assigned to another driver before the Chase, and when that wasn't done Labbe and EMS split by mutual agreement.

Mayfield took offense to that comment, reminding Labbe recently was fired from his role at Dale Jarrett's crew chief at RYR.

"Where's he at now?'' Mayfield said. "He was blaming Dale Jarrett, too. It really ticked me off. Slugger doesn't have room to talk about nothing to nobody. Life goes on. I'm going to move forward.

"I'm so excited about next year. There's a fire in me burning right now that ain't nobody ever seen. We are going to be good.''

Mayfield hopes to be in another car before the season's end, perhaps by Bristol next weekend. He's had talks with several owners, including Bill Davis, about a ride for the rest of the season.

"I was hoping to have something for Michigan,'' said Mayfield, a five-time winner in Cup. "That's pretty much where things changed for me. I won the race last year and I'm not even going to be there this year.

"It's pretty [messed] up.''

Still, Mayfield is excited about his future and the future of Bill Davis Racing with the support of Toyota.

"I've got a good feeling,'' said Mayfield, who can't go into specifics until his new deal is announced.

Mayfield likes the thought of going to an organization where he'll be considered the so-called top driver with Dave Blaney as the second driver. That never was the case at EMS, where he always was the "other driver.''

"I always did to the 9 car, whether it was Bill Elliott or Kasey in there,'' he said. "But if felt good making the Chase the past two years knowing that I was the only [Evernham] driver to make it.''

Mayfield's only regret is that he won't get an opportunity to turn the 19 team around before moving on.

"Looking back now, I wish it would have worked out where we were running good and none of this had come about,'' he said. "At one point, I thought [EMS] is where I was going to retire. I didn't want to move again.

"But when you're running bad, running bad and running bad, and all of a sudden you get told if you want to look around you can ... what do you do now? You start looking.''