Mayfield's future now in limbo

Driver looking to revitalize his career

JIM UTTER, jutter@charlotteobserver.com

Saturday, Aug. 11, 2007

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WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. – A year ago, Jeremy Mayfield had lawyers in a Statesville, N.C., courtroom trying to save his Nextel Cup ride with Evernham Motorsports.

Now, he’s trying to save his career.

Mayfield, 38, announced last week he would bring a quick close to his troubled tenure at Bill Davis Racing at season’s end and seek a new ride for the second time in a year.

The five-time Cup winner’s bitter falling out with team owner Ray Evernham last year and the struggles of this season at BDR – his No. 36 Toyota team has qualified for nine of 22 races – have taken their toll.

When qualifying was canceled Friday because of bad weather, Mayfield squeaked into the field for Sunday’s Centurion Boats at the Glen at Watkins Glen International through tiebreaker provisions in the rulebook.

With opportunities slim this season to perform in races, Mayfield knows any time on the track is precious if he is going to try to restart his career one more time.

“It’s not a good feeling when you have to go home and miss a race, especially after last year when I missed several races with Ray’s deal which I had no intentions of ever doing – that was his doing,” Mayfield said.

“I sat home then. I was excited about this year and then we missed the first four races. Man, that just makes you feel like ‘out of sight, out of mind’ and if you’re not careful, you’ll be forgotten about in this business.”

Such a proposition seemed ridiculous when Mayfield burst onto the Cup scene with his first win in 1998 with Penske-Kranefuss Racing and led the series points for several weeks before finishing a career-best seventh.

He won two more races in 2000, including his second Pocono victory that included the now-famous bump-and-run pass of the late Dale Earnhardt on the last lap. Mayfield seemed poised for greatness.

By the next season, Mayfield’s run with Penske had soured and he left the organization before the end of the year. He rejoined the series in 2002 with Evernham’s Dodge team but struggled from the start.

Although Mayfield won two races with Evernham – including a victory in 2004 that allowed him to qualify for the first Chase for the Nextel Cup – his tenure at the organization was rocky and by last summer the turmoil landed both men in court.

Evernham wanted to replace Mayfield in the No. 19 Dodge at Watkins Glen, but Mayfield sought an injunction to prevent the change. In court documents filed at the time, Mayfield alleged Evernham was an absentee owner distracted by his “close personal relationship” with his development driver, Erin Crocker.

Ultimately, the matter was settled out of court, but again Mayfield was left without a team. Starting over with BDR, along with new manufacturer Toyota, was to be his second chance. Now he seeks a third.

“You have this path in life where you’re kind of wild to start with and you don’t really know what’s going on – you see that with a lot of young drivers that come in here,” Mayfield said. “Now I feel like I’ve matured in my personal life and I want to go racing and race to have fun.

“That’s what I love to do most and I hope I get that opportunity again because I certainly appreciate it a lot more now than I did at any other point in my life.”

Make no mistake, Mayfield has regrets.

“If I had a dream team, I’d go back to my No. 12 car days at Penske. I wish I had that opportunity now,” he said. “There were a lot of things that happened, things between (Michael) Kranefuss and Roger (Penske) and me not getting along with Rusty (Wallace).

“As a driver I could have done a lot of things differently. I wish I had that opportunity over again and I definitely wouldn’t be leaving there, I can tell you that.”

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