Submitted by NASCAR Ranting and Raving Blog
Jeremy Mayfield climbed through the ranks of go-carts to ARCA to eventually a full-time Cup ride with Cale Yarborough in 1995. He then switched teams halfway through 1996 going to Kranefus-Haas because of poor performance with Cale.
Roger Penske then bought out Haas and became a part owner in Jeremy’s ride at the start of the 1998 season, and later Mobil 1 signed on as a sponsor and his car number changed to 12. He won his first race that season and at one point lead the point standings.
He was seen as a serious contender for the Championship in 1999 but had a horrible summer stretch and finished 11th in the points. 2000 seemed to have a bright outlook for Mayfield after a strong finish to the 1999 season. Mayfield won a race in California and another with an Intimidator-like move on the Intimidator himself, Dale Earnhardt, at Pocono but the team was found to be usuing fuel additives in April and fell out of the top 10 in points after the fines were levied. Other than that win in Pocono in the summer the rest of the season saw a drop in performance for the team where they ended up 24th in points. We won’t even talk about the fact that after the California win the car was found to be too low.
After the 2000 season Kranefuss sold his half of the team to Penske, and again things were looking up for Jeremy for the 2001 season, but the bottom fell out and the team ran inconsistent at best. Part way through the season Mayfield then decided to leave the Penske organization and asked to be released. He later signed on with the newly founded Evernham Motorsports for the 2002 season.
Mayfield’s hopes, and prospects at Evernham seemed to be high and Jeremey had something to prove as well - that he was a good driver, but the team didn’t perform up to expectations. Halfway through the 2003 season rumours were abound that Mayfield’s job was on the line, and he poured it on in the last half of the season. Although the team finished 19th in the points, Jeremy finished in the top ten 11 times in the last 21 races, and finsihed 2nd twice and 3rd twice in the last 11 races.
Based on 2003’s late season performance things for 2004 were looking especially good for Mayfield and Evernham Motorsports. Although Mayfield made it into the Chase by winning the last race before the Chase in Richmond, the team then floundered in the final 10 races and finished last in the Chase itself (10th overall) - not too bad, but below expectations.
Once again, the 2005 season seemed to be the season for Mayfield and his Evernham Motorsports team. Again expectations were high. Again Mayfield just made it into the Chase. Again his team sputtered and he finished 9th in points.
2006 seemed to be destined as Jeremy’s break through year with Evernham Motorsports and maybe even be a Championship contender with a little more consistency, but that was not to happen. 2006 was probably Jeremy’s hardest year to that point. Jeremy and his team struggled during the 2006 season, and Jeremy wasn’t going to be quiet about it either. He publicly pointed fingers in the direction of Ray Evernham as the cause of his poor performance. Jeremy and Ray had a very public ‘break-up’ that ended up in court with accusations of infidelity made by Jeremy about Ray and developmental driver Erin Crocker. Jeremy was out of a ride after the Brickyard 400 in August until he signed on with Bill Davis and attempted to make the last 2 races of the season, making only the last one.
Enter 2007. Jeremy had hopes of being one of the drivers bringing new car entry Toyota to the front of the pack, but instead he got a limited racing schedule, a string of failed qualifying attempts, sponsorship problems, released by Bill Davis Racing effective at the end of the season, and now was caught cheating at tech inspection with a light car and lead hidden in his water bottle. Now I don’t know if he knew about the lead or not, but I can only assume that he didn’t know about it as much as Michael didn’t know there was jet fuel in his intake manifold. Both guilty.
I can’t believe that he or his crew, or both, would have the nerve to try the old hidden weight trick. That is as old as racing itself. In fact, some drag racers (especially Pro-Stock) had that trick perfected in the 80’s and 90’s. They would show up to the scales with specially designed lead weighted duplicate racing helmets, and the like, that they would wear for the weigh-in and then switch back to their regular lighter gear for the race.
Honestly, I think NASCAR kind of feels sorry for him and that is why they only took 25 driver and owner points away from him and gave his crew chief a $25 000 fine, a 2 week suspension, and probation until the end of the year. Were they going to run the next two races anyway? And if they were, would they have qualified? Don’t know, don’t care.
This must be a tough time for Jeremy right now and he has gone on record as of late stating he has made some decisions that he now regrets. Don’t you think? Hind sight is 20/20 Jeremy. He states that he wants to stay in Cup, but he will take a ride in any series.
By that statement I think Jeremy is finally facing reality and has come to accept the fact that he has burned too many people; Cal, Roger, and Ray and that he may never drive for a top team again as a result. Whenever the going got tough, he left, and people don’t want that in a driver.
He may have changed now, but his age is against him - he just might be too old at 38 (can you believe it?) for some teams who want to invest long term in a driver, and owners might be a little gun shy with him because of his ‘burned bridges’.
I’d still like to see Jeremy around in Cup, he is a competitive driver who has shown huge potential and skill. But I’m afraid he’ll end up like Johnny Benson, and Mike Skinner, driving in another series with some success and never really returning to Cup. That is a shame, but it is his bed and he made it, now he has to lay in it.
Photo Credit: billdavisracing.com
