Jeremy Mayfield has made both Chases, but most people wouldn't know that. Credit: Autostock

Mayfield ready to prove everyone wrong again
Least talked-about Chaser confident of championship prospects
NASCAR.COM
January 23, 2006
09:51 PM EST (02:51 GMT)


Jeremy Mayfield is the Rodney Dangerfield of NASCAR: two consecutive Chase appearances yet no respect.

"I've been beat up, tied down, shot up, spit out and everything else," he said.


Jeremy Mayfield expects a better '06 in the No. 19. Credit: Autostock

Inside the Numbers
Jeremy Mayfield in 2005
Wins 1
Top-5s 4
Top-10s 9
DNFs 1
Poles 0
Laps Led 151
Avg. Start 15.3
Avg. Finish 15.9
Earnings $4,417,798

Mayfield wasn't taken seriously as a title contender the previous two years and no one is expecting him to make the Chase this year. In fact his No. 19 Evernham Motorsports team -- sans crew chief Slugger Labbe, who has moved on to Robert Yates Racing and Dale Jarrett -- has slid over to teammate Kasey Kahne, who finished 23rd in points last year.

"You made the Chase two years in a row and you didn't do nothin'," Mayfield said. "It is the team that got me in the Chase, but I'm sitting here getting criticized."

To that effect Mayfield -- who finished 10th and ninth, respectively, in points the past two years -- is ready to prove his detractors wrong.

"I've got a better race team right now than I had last year, and we get criticized a lot about the end of the year," Mayfield said. "If you look at what you think is going to happen at the beginning of the year and you look at all the numbers, you'd still put us in the top 10."

Mayfield scoffs at the idea team owner Ray Evernham left him "high and dry" by placing the better team with Kahne and the No. 9 Dodge.

"It wasn't like give Kasey all the cars I had," said Mayfield, who will work with the No. 91 crew of '05 part-timer Bill Elliott. "Yeah, we switched teams and a lot of people are different, and this, that or another, but from my point of view it's as good or better as it's ever been.

"I've got all brand new race cars, the best Evernham Motorsports can build and they're all done and ready to go, so we're more prepared today as a race team than the 9. The 19 is struggling a little bit with the new deal because we don't know how the people are going to work out, but other than that we are in pretty good shape."

Mayfield insists there is no animosity in the garage and Evernham Motorsports will operate as one.

"The 9 and 19 are closer than they've ever been," Mayfield said. "They're working together. They're helping each other. Our cars are the same. It's a tight-knit group right now.

"Ray stays on the guys, and he's not afraid to change things up in a heartbeat. So far, we're still searching for what we want in the race teams, and he's made the changes we needed.

"Ray Evernham and Dodge and myself and everybody on the 9 and 19 and 10 [Scott Riggs, newest Evernham driver] car, we're going to win races and we're going to be in the top 10 in points."

Mayfield has but one win in each of the past two seasons, but he points toward consistency when arguing his case of making the Chase.

"Look at average finishes [15.9], average starts [15.3], laps completed [98.6 percent]," said Mayfield, whose top-fives (five to four) and top-10s (13 to nine) dropped from the previous year. "We made the top 10 running like that. If we made the top 10 last year running like that, what's going to happen this year if we get just a little bit better?

"We know we weren't as good as we were the year before and we still got in. I'm excited about this year coming up. There's years you say that and years you mean that. I've got more confidence than I've ever had."

And that's about as much talking as Mayfield will do. He says his season will speak for itself.

"I know we're quiet and don't say a whole lot, but I've done it two years in a row and I can do it again," Mayfield said. "I'd hate to see you picking odds at Vegas. If you worked out there you'd be in big trouble.

"I'm just joking, but I'm trying to make a point. We're a better race team and this year we'll show you."