At Bristol, Mayfield's team begins to see the light

BRISTOL, Tenn. -- Take a left from where the green No. 36 racecar is parked in the infield, walk to the opposite site of the garage, make a right turn at the gas pumps, and navigate the tunnel that emerges on the other side of the racetrack. Walk down the ramp, take another right, and trudge up the long hill past several parking lots to a spot well outside of Bristol Motor Speedway.

And there you will find NASCAR's version of skid row, home to huddled masses that yearn to just qualify for Nextel Cup events. It's where you find startup teams, shoestring teams, struggling teams and anyone else outside the golden realm of the top 35. All the contenders are parked below, within the confines of the half-mile concrete bowl. Outside, on this distant hilltop, are the teams longing to get there.

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Jeremy Mayfield is not used to this. After all, this is a driver who's won five races and earned two Chase berths and once punted Dale Earnhardt out of the way to reach Victory Lane. Now he watches his Bill Davis Racing crewmen make the long walk up the hill each time they need a car part, and watches his team put every effort into not winning a race, but just making it.

"It's embarrassing," he said. "It's a bad feeling. We've got to keep our confidence in ourselves and our team, keep our egos and pride in check, and just realize it's a tough sport. We chose to do this, and I chose to be a part of this team. We've just got to fight some battles and get through it."

Dismissed from Evernham Motorsports late last season after a conflict with the team owner, Mayfield landed in a first-year car with the Davis organization, a once-promising outfit that's won a Daytona 500 and is relying on an alliance with Toyota to get it back to the top. Dave Blaney, driving a No. 22 car that finished in the top 35 in owner points last season, has made every race. Mayfield, driving a No. 36 car that started the year with no points, has spent every Sunday at home.

Daytona, California, Las Vegas, Atlanta -- the result was always the same. The No. 36 car missed the show, and Mayfield spend the weekend running the bulldozer on his farm, turning laps on the sprint-car track he built in his yard, and trying not to watch the Nextel Cup race on television. Every Tuesday he drove to the shop in High Point, N.C., for a competition meeting, and tried his best to stay positive.

"He's been great. His confidence is still there," said team general manager Mike Brown. "We've still got tons of confidence in him. We knew this would be tough. Probably not quite as tough as it has been. Yogi Berra said it long ago, 90 percent of this is half mental. In some ways, that's true today. It's a fine line between being good and bad." (Continued)