| By Dave Rodman, NASCAR.COM
November 9, 2006
10:50 AM EST (15:50 GMT)
It's getting down to the cutting time in Nextel Cup, and some of the gang aren't taking it as well as others are, as Kevin Harvick, his wife, a NASCAR official and members of Harvick's and Scott Riggs' respective crews found out this week. But the Mayfields are cool with everything that's happening around them. The ESPN2 reality show of which they're a part, NASCAR Drivers Non-Stop, premiered last Sunday, with part II scheduled for this Sunday evening. The Mayfields, however, may have to exercise their recording device, as they'll be en route home from Phoenix and Jeremy's latest Nextel Cup venture, with owner James Finch. In the interim, the Mayfields weighed in on the latest on-track and off-track spats, as well as their picks for hall of fame altercations they've witnessed along with giving their opinions on who'll win the Chase for the Nextel Cup. This week: Getting in Scott-free Q: Jeremy, you've got to be enthused about getting back behind the wheel of a Nextel Cup car -- and a Dodge, no less -- with a new crew chief at Phoenix Racing? Jeremy: I'm definitely excited to get back in the seat, and James Finch and his guys have really got an interesting one for me to be in. The Miccosukee Dodge they've got ready for me is a bad looking ride -- it's black, and you know how I feel about black cars. Shana: Well, it was set up to be that way before Jeremy did the deal to do these two races, Phoenix and Homestead, with James' team. But it's a cool car. Jeremy: All it needs is some flames coming out of the headlights to make it really bad to the bone. And I've got a new crew chief over there for this weekend, Scott Eggleston. Marc Reno has kind of been overlooking everything for James on the Cup and Busch sides of things, so I think they brought Scott in for this weekend to handle the Cup car for me. I'm looking forward to working with him because I've known Scott forever -- we've just never worked together. Q: With all the melees that happened at the end of Texas, is Phoenix a good place for payback? Shana: I don't think any place is a good place for anything like that. But it's probably going to be a place where we'll see some. I don't know. Any time you have a race and there's an altercation or something happens and you go to the next one, especially when it's a short track, you're going to see something. I don't know what's going to happen -- and if you could call it payback or just short-track racing. Jeremy: It's as good a place as any. You might see something -- then again, if Scott [Riggs] looks at the tape, he'll see what happened, he'll see what he did -- and he'll probably just go on. I don't think anybody will pay anybody back intentionally, but I think it's going to be a wild race, anyway. There are two races to go in the championship, and anything could happen, really -- and that might shake it all up and make everyone forget anything funny even happened in Texas. Except that tire carrier. I don't think he'll forget it anytime soon. Shana: I bet that he won't. Jeremy: But, he's got to be careful too, because if he tries to go back and do something this weekend in Phoenix, NASCAR will be all over him, too. Shana: NASCAR will be watching them all pretty closely. Jeremy: Scott just better use his brains this week. And if he doesn't -- I just hope I'm nowhere in the vicinity. Q: Drivers getting together on the racetrack -- or even in the garage or on pit road after a race -- is one thing, but what did you guys think of the dimension the incident with Riggs and Harvick took on when it escalated behind pit road? Jeremy: Your crew has got to stick up for you and they will stick up for you -- but I always felt like, and I know Scott would feel the same way, I want to take care of my own deal. You don't necessarily have to do it on pit road or in the garage -- or even in the coach lot. But I'd want to take care of it and settle it, face to face. Shana: Like we said the other day, whatever you do, don't do a cheap shot. I couldn't believe it happened. It was like in elementary school -- push somebody from behind and then run off. That's the 'P' word and I don't want to use it. Jeremy: That's where your manhood comes in. You just don't push somebody from behind, under any circumstance. To me, that's just unacceptable, and that's just how NASCAR called it and judged it. They suspended him indefinitely, because they saw it the same way. Shana: Be a man. Don't blind-side somebody. If you've got an issue just say something about it, at least. And be ready to deal with whatever the other side might have to say or do about it as a consequence. You don't just come up behind somebody and bushwhack them -- and you especially don't involve DeLana [Harvick] and a NASCAR official who didn't have anything to do with whatever you thought you were all fired up over. That's such a bad image to portray -- and it's unfortunate because it's a direct reflection on Riggs, his sponsors and Evernham Motorsports. Jeremy: It's a total, direct reflection on Ray and I think that's why he and his team reacted the way they did. Shana: You just don't want to have that kind of reputation, either as an individual or a race team. You want respect throughout the garage for being straight up. I know that if that were Jeremy and somebody on his team did something like that, he would be livid. Jeremy: Like I said, I'd want to take care of myself, and I don't want anyone to think they have to take care of it for me. It looks bad on Riggs and everybody, the way it came down. Shana: And it was bad for the sport, because people who might have just happened to be watching might see that and think that it's a weekly occurrence. They'll look at it and see that somebody pushed a driver's wife and an official -- so from that standpoint, that's probably the worst thing I've heard coming out of our sport in a long time. Jeremy: If they were face to face it would be a different story. Shana: Right -- go right to Kevin. But actually, it was between Scott and Kevin -- so stay out of the middle of it. But if you were going to stick your nose into it, at least be a man about it. Jeremy: Look at it this way. How would Ray feel if he was walking along and someone tapped him on the shoulder, and before he even turned, they just punched him? Shana: But you're upset that someone who was totally innocent gets dragged into it -- and hopefully DeLana is OK. She had nothing to do with it. Jeremy: And the silliest thing is, they need to all go back and watch the tape, and they'll all probably have a different take on it. Scott had been blocking Jimmie [Johnson] before that, and Jimmie got by him and Scott was up high. He saw Kevin coming and he tried to move down. Well, you need to understand, at that point in the race, if you're not going somewhere, you're going to get moved by someone who is. If you've been trying to block somebody, and then you come down on somebody else to block them and they hit you -- you're going to blame the guy you were cutting down on? That's just asking for an ass-whipping right there. And then for his guy to go over there and blame Harvick -- well, I don't know about that. That's pretty much out of hand, right there. Shana: I hope he does look at it, but you never know. It can go either way. Scott wants that first win pretty badly, and he may feel like Harvick did it intentionally and didn't give him anything. You never know. If you watch it, you should know what happened, but he could still see it his own way. Q: For a couple weeks now we've seen something happen in the aftermath of these races -- so wrack your brains for a minute and what's some of the funnier garage area spats you guys have seen? Jeremy: I don't know if it's the funniest -- but it certainly has the potential. And it hasn't happened yet, if you catch my drift. Shana: There you go. Jeremy: I don't think this one will be out behind the barn -- it will be funnier in the garage. And it has yet to come. It will probably be the funniest thing anybody has ever seen. Shana: Does it have to be on the racetrack or in the garage? Remember when you wrecked Hut Stricklin at Bristol? Jeremy: Yeah, I do. Shana: And he walked up on the racetrack and did something to you. Jeremy: He was pissed. He was pointing at his head, calling me a son-of-a-b----. But I just forgot he was there, man. Where have I heard that before? Shana: I wouldn't know. Jeremy: See, he had wrecked me previously at Martinsville. I don't know if it was on purpose or not -- but he wrecked me. He knew he had one coming. But don't get me wrong -- I like Hut, and I still do. Shana: Jeremy called him out then -- and it went on from there. Jeremy: And I accidentally wrecked him at Bristol. So he was clapping as if to say, 'Ha ha ha -- you finally got me.' But I've forgotten what that was all about. Shana: What about Jimmy Spencer and Kurt Busch at Michigan? I watched that, but it wasn't funny. Jeremy: No. It wasn't funny. That happened right in front of me. Shana: That was flat-out not even funny. Jeremy: I'll tell you the funniest one. It was at Richmond a couple years ago, when we finished second. We went down into the corner, and Ricky Rudd comes flying by me on the outside and hits Harvick and takes Harvick out. And a bunch of them wrecked. Well, the race is over and we come down pit road and I'm getting ready to get out of my car, and I've got Harvick on one side of me parked there. And I got Rudd in front of me. And Harvick jumps out, madder than hell and raising hell about everything -- but he gets up on top of his car, because he knows that Ricky's coming. So Harvick's standing on top of his car just raising hell at Ricky, you know? I thought that was pretty funny. Shana: That was pretty funny. Jeremy was just caught in the crossfire, just sitting there wondering what's going to happen next? I remember that well. Jeremy: I think Harvick threw his HANS device and Ricky grabbed it and threw it back at him. That was back before the Chase, but it was great. Shana: That was pretty funny. Jeremy: I just jumped up on my car, partly to get out of the way but to have a better view at the same time. Shana: That Harvick can do some funny [stuff] sometimes. Jeremy: He can. Q: We've got a 17-point battle between Jimmie Johnson and Matt Kenseth with two races left, so is it a two-man scrap or do those other three that are back to 105 points out still have a shot? Jeremy: I'm telling you, I'm still thinking we're going to see the big one -- not a 15-car wreck, but something is going to happen one more time that is really gonna mix up this Chase. I think by the time it's over, this is gonna be the closest one yet. We're already seeing that every week. Something goes wrong, and the points get spread out -- and then it goes bad for someone else, and it's tightened back up. But as they say, they're running out of tomorrows. Shana: It's going to be close, so I don't know if it's going to be a two-man race, a three-man race or what. Jeremy: If you're in the top five, you've definitely still got a shot. A 105-point gap is a lot, on the one hand, but it's not. If one guy has a bad day and the other has a good one, one of them could lose 75 points and the other could gain 30 -- and there's 105 points. Of course, having three other guys between first and fifth has something to do with it, too. But if the 17 [Kenseth] and the 48 [Johnson] have good days at Phoenix, it's pretty much gonna come down to those two. Shana: It will come down to the two of them at Homestead. Jeremy: But if they have bad races, and everybody else has good races, it's going to be all shook up again, you know? Shana: Yeah. It's probably going to come down to the wire again, like it did at Homestead the year that Jimmie lost by eight points [2004]. It's going to be close. And if it was me, either way, I'd rather be leading -- whether it's this weekend in Phoenix or the week after at Homestead. Jeremy: Yeah, I think you want to be out front by all you can be. Shana: I think that way that all of your guys' confidence is built up and their morale is up. Jeremy: But that can go two ways, too. You can be leading and everybody will get conservative, you know, on their motors and stuff and not want to blow anything, but you're not making as much power as you might need. And that could hurt you, also. But if you just keep racing like you've been racing, and you're leading, you'll be in good shape. Shana: And Jimmie's been through this deal three years in a row now. The 17 kind of knows how to race smart and to do what they need to do, so I think if they keep doing that, they'll be OK. But if you're Harvick and you're 105 points back, you let it rip. He won the spring race in Phoenix so they're going to go out with guns blazing, you know? So you never know. Word Association: Back in the saddle, Phoenix-style Gila River
Jeremy: Where in the Gila's the water?
Shana: Are there any fish there? Tunnel
Jeremy: The easy way out.
Shana: The easy way in. Favorite
Jeremy: Pistol Packing Paula.
Shana: Great weather. | 
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