NexCup - NASCAR Jeremy Mayfield Teleconference Transcript

NASCAR Weekly Teleconference

Tuesday, Aug. 17, 2004

JEREMY MAYFIELD (No. 19 Dodge Dealers/UAW Dodge)

 

 

Q: Now that you're back into the top 10 for the first time since the
spring race in Bristol, can you talk about what it's taken the 19 team
to get back into it?

 

A: To start with, it looked like it was going to be OK., and then we had
a few bad races, and then all of a sudden we kept staying focused on
what we've had to do, and we've been racing every week just like there's
no pressure, nothing to worry about, and just do the best we can as a
race team and racking up all the points we can. This is really the solid
part for us, this last half of the season. That's playing a role also.
We've really got the momentum going, and we're communicating well, and
everything's going great and that's what me and Kenny Francis, my crew
chief, you know, things just keep getting better and better every week.

 

Q: As you are making the climb, you did not do it with victory after
victory, it was just a little bit at a time that you've made your way to
the top, when you got to like two races ago and realized you had a shot
to get back in this thing, did it surprise you a little bit?

 

A: You know we've kind of had our eye on it all year. There were a
couple times when we were like 16th and stuff like that, you almost
start going, 'Man we're almost to the point where we're not going to be
able to turn the corner on it you know?' And we just kept fighting and
just working hard and the main thing we've done is just stay focused on
our team and our deal. We haven't really worried about the points or
where we were as much as what we can do to be better as a race team. And
you know, we've just pulled together as a group, and it really hasn't
surprised us I don't think as much as looking up now and thinking the
big thing now is that now that we do have a shot at it, we do have a
shot at the championship, that's a great feeling. Something we've got to
focus on this week is not worrying about all that and just going back to
racing again and hopefully we can do that.

 

Q: When you finally made it into the top 10, there is so much pressure
going into this cutoff...compare it to last year. Is there more
pressure?

 

A: I don't think so. We've had a tough last couple years, and really for
me it's just about 2001, you know when the deal with Penske...we decided
to part ways and I had a rough start to begin with, then all of a
sudden, it was about this point last year, that we really started
gelling and coming together as a race team and I don't think there could
ever be as much pressure as I had the last year and a half or so. I
shouldn't say that, last year's been great. But the year before that was
pretty rough, so I'm looking at it as if anyone can handle it as a race
team, we can. Ray is a very strong person as owner, and strong-minded as
a person and can help our team with his experience and we'll continue
what we're doing and stay strong and stay tough, and I don't think the
pressure's going to get to us.

 

Q: Ray has been in the championship before. How instrumental has he been
as you guys have made this climb keeping everybody level-headed taking
it one race at a time?

 

A: That's been the big thing, taking it one race at a time, but also if
we have a great car in Saturday's practice and feel like we've got a
chance to win the race. He's the one that comes back and reminds
us...just get it done, get in the top 10, you know if we're there at the
end, get in the top five, and if you get in the position to win, then we
can win. But, don't expect anything more out of yourselves than a top
10, top 15. Well, a top 15, we're not that good, a top 10 we are good
and that's kind of what we've done, and that way you keep your goals
realistic and if you feel like that day you're going to win that day, or
Saturday after practice you feel like you've got a car to win and you
don't, you know that can be devastating to a race team and Ray's been
good enough, or I should say has given us good advice to keep us
level-headed when we're aren't good, and he's just done a great job of
that -- keeping us all on an even keel all the time. 

 

Q: Can you just talk about working with your teammates? We've seen how
working together has worked for the 24 and the 48, and when you look at
the teams that really work together, you have to talk about your group
as well. Can you just talk about what a difference that's made in your
program?

 

A: It's made a huge difference, and that's something we've really got
going on this year. Not that I've never had that, I mean Bill and I got
along great and worked well as drivers, but it feels like now our race
teams are more, I guess you could say teammates, than they've ever been
and they help each other. They work with each other. You know they're
constantly back and forth, and with Kasey and me it's just natural. We
get along great and have a good time together and joke around, and it's
fun helping each other, but the biggest thing is that the teams
themselves have just gelled together and that's something that Ray has
always stressed to me at our shop and on a weekly basis. I mean there's
one team in here and two racecars and that's kind of the way we look at
it. You know, Dodge looks at it the same way. They look at it as one big
Dodge team, and that's what we try to do, and Ray's done a great job of
doing that and I think we've got probably the best teammate situation
out there as far as working together and really getting along good and
wanting to help each other.

 

Q: From the first time you've heard about the points system to now, have
you changed your views on it?

 

A: Well, you know, when NASCAR first came out with that, I thought it
was pretty neat because you know, I'm sitting here going, we're 19th in
points, and we don't know how it's going to work out. I mean who knows
what's going to happen. I just kind of look at it that way. I was all
for it, I mean, just because every once in a while it doesn't hurt to
have a change anyway, you know, and now I love it. I love what they did.
I think they've done a great job of restructuring. I think it's going to
really add a lot more excitement in the last 10 races for sure, and I
think it's going to take a guy like us, who's able to get back into the
top 10, and be there in the end and give us a chance to win the
championship, and I think it's great. I mean, it's all about
consistency, yeah, but you've still got to be fast, you've still got to
get in the top 10 and you've still got to earn what you earn in those
last 10 races, but of course, I'm sitting here today telling you how
great it is. If I'm 19th right now, I mean I'm probably not sure how
it's going to work, but I love it. I mean, I'm sure Jeff Gordon and
Jimmie Johnson are guys that won't, but we all knew going in what it was
going to be. I think that NASCAR's done a great job with that, and
hopefully we'll be able to produce in the last 10 races and give the
fans what they've been looking for.

 

Q: Specifically to the Michigan race. What have you guys been working
on? What are you guys going to do differently?

 

A: Well last time, we pretty much know what kind of bit us there last
time, the reason we didn't have a good finish there last time. But we're
going to go out there and go into it just like we would each and every
week, and Friday morning, roll off the truck and do what we always do,
and not change the way we do things, and just go from there. A couple
weeks ago, I was the one making comments, you know the guys in the top
10 have all the pressure and the guys out of the top 10 don't, but I'll
tell you now, the pressure's not really on us. We've got nothing to
lose, we're just going to keep racing like we've been, and we're going
to go to Michigan and like you said, improve drastically from the first
race. I mean, we're going to be a lot better, and should be in good
shape there if nothing happens.

 

Q: Are you impressed at all by Kasey, and the way he's handled things
this year. He's got a lawsuit on the outside, but has seemed to maintain
his focus on getting into the top 10, and now he's only 24 points
behind, has he really impressed you this year?

 

A: Oh yeah, certainly, and Kasey's done a great job with whatever he's
got going on. ... He's run a lot of Busch races, and he's had a lot of
stuff going on, and I mean, life has changed a lot in the past six
months and I think more than he ever dreamed or thought it was going to,
and he's handled it well. He's taken it one day at a time. He's doing
everything right. I know he's done everything Ray has asked him to do,
which is going to make him a better driver. He's always asking for
advice, and heck, we're going to him, asking him for advice. I think
he's done a great job with that, and he's really handled it well, and I
don't see him cracking or breaking down either. I see him just getting
better and better every week, and that's a good sign. 

 

Q: Last week at the Glen, it appeared that when Robby Gordon was
leading, he moved over and let Harvick by just long enough to get the
five points for leading the lap. Are we going to see more teamwork like
that in the next couple weeks on the track?

 

A: I think it's really good. That's the teammate situation, and it was
pretty cool that Kasey and I were right there neck and neck on it, but
you can probably see that if he was leading and I were running second,
we'd do the same thing. Even though we're fighting for the same
position, it's good for the whole team in general. For those two that is
pretty cool because I doubt that their relationship is as solid as Kasey
and mine's, but I could see that if this were going to help the race
team out, I don't think there's anything wrong with it. 

 

Q: That move helped Harvick moved beyond Bobby Labonte in the standings,
do you think Bobby's enjoying it?

 

A: Well, I mean Harvick put himself in the position to do that. He was
running 30th, and all of a  sudden he was in position to get five
points.  He had to be up there to get those, and that's part of it. And
Bobby, I'm sure would feel the same, and he'd let Tony go, or Tony'd let
him go if they were in the same situation. Bobby just never got himself
in position to do that, so I don't think Bobby Labonte's saying anything
about that.

 

Q: You've seen all four of these upcoming tracks already. What kind of
advantage might that provide?

 

A: Well, I think definitely that one of our strong points as a race team
is this part of the season. I mean, especially the (racetracks) we've
already gone to, we're just going to look at each track and say, 'What
did we do there the last time? What can we do this time to be better?'
It always helps to have that, but on the same token, everyone in the
NEXTEL Cup Series has that. So we just have to be smart about it, and
know that whatever happened in the first race, in the race coming up we
can't make the same mistakes. I think that's probably the strong part of
our team right now. Hopefully, knock on wood, we're not going to make
the same mistakes over and over, so if we just keep getting better like
that, then the upcoming tracks we've already been to should be even
better for us.

 

Q: We've got a nice little mixture of tracks in the next four. Which of
the four do you see as being your biggest challenge?

 

A: Probably Bristol. I mean Bristol's going to be a tough place, I mean
just because you don't have total control there. You've got to race
hard, but you've got to stay out of trouble, and it's hard to stay out
of trouble at that place. And that's going to be our biggest hurdle, but
we've already made it through the two biggest, and that was Indy and
Watkins Glen. We thought those we're going to be our toughest places
because I've never run good at Indy since I've been with Ray in the last
couple years, and all of a sudden we come back and were running up in
front all day, and crossed that one. And then of course, there's Watkins
Glen, and that's a road course, so we thought we've made it through our
toughest parts and now we've just got to get through Bristol and then
we're out.

 

Q: Any kind of difference you've noticed on the track as we head toward
the final stretch here?

 

A: Yeah, I have. I've noticed that everyone we've been racing has been
running well, and we're all fighting for the same spot and that's pretty
cool. Everybody's just done a great job, I mean, there's a lot of great
race teams out there right now that are running good and you can tell
that with this new points system, that everybody from all the way back
has stepped it up and has their programs running good. That's the
biggest thing. I'm starting to notice the cars not racing in points.  I
mean, wherever they're at during the race, I used to never worry about
that. I never even thought about that, but now I keep an eye on them and
so do my crew guys, you know? Kenny and them let me know every day that
the cars around us were in trouble, and just do the best we could to
bring the thing home, and just have a good day, and that's what we did.
So I've noticed we been racing a little different in that aspect.

 

Q: You pushed Ryan Newman out of the top 10 with your seventh-place run
this weekend at Watkins Glen. But you know, he's going into this weekend
having won the past two races at Michigan, yet you've been hot over the
past five weeks. Whose position is the better one, do you think?

 

A: We're in the best position because I think it's going to be extra
hard for him as far as the bad luck and stuff they've had going on the
past couple weeks. They're going to really have to do something big this
week to pull out of that, and I think the pressure's really on them now,
and not on us. And I feel like going into Michigan and knowing what we
know from the last race and what went wrong, that we're going to fix
that and race safe. I mean, I know he's won there, and he's going to be
great and I'm sure he's going to be very competitive. But I know it's
going to be hard to win - this is just me speaking out loud here - but I
think it'd be hard for him to win that many times in a row there. 

 

Q: What do you think your fans like most in their driver?

 

A: I don't know, probably that they're real. You know, that this is who
I am, and I'm not one to be totally outspoken, hopefully, but that it's
real. I try to be who I am, and the same as I've always been and pretty
humble, and hopefully that's what they like. And if they like my driving
style, I hope that too, because I'm getting back to where I left off two
or three years ago it feels like. Hopefully the ones that have been with
me, like me for my driving style, and hopefully like my personality. 

 

Q: You've really found a home like Ray Evernham now it seems like, after
you've been around a while. Can you talk about that?

 

A: Yeah, I certainly feel that way. Ray and I have become just really
good friends in the last year and a half or so, and it's just amazing
that we've been through a lot of hard times in the beginning of our
career together, I guess you'd say. And then, all of a sudden, things
just turn around for us, and I think that with Ray and my relationship,
I mean, I'll retire here. I love this place, and I love the direction
he's got in going in, and he's just a great guy. We've become super good
friends, and hopefully I'll never have to find another ride again
anywhere. This is where I want to be, and this is where I want to retire
at, and hopefully things we'll keep going as they are and that's what
we'll see.

 

Q: Quite a few drivers are running in the Busch Series on Saturday, as
well as the Cup Series this weekend in Michigan, one of them being Kasey
Kahne. These guys are right on your heals in the Chase for the Nextel
Cup. Does that give them any advantage on Sunday?

 

A: Well, if you are outside the top 10, and you're racing like we've
been racing, and we're going to continue racing like that, you've got to
go all out. I mean, you can't hold anything back, and you've got to put
everything on, and everything's got to be dead on - and that's the pit
stops and all. And the race teams that can do that and capitalize on
other people's mistakes will be the ones that'll end up in good shape
there. But, I think that I like the position I'm in now, we're going to
continue what we're doing, and we're going for ninth, eighth, seventh,
and just keep moving up. We're not looking back as 10th as being the
cutoff; we're just going to keep moving forward and get all we can get
here. 

 

Q: Was there a defining moment that changed things for the team for the
better, or that changed your relationship with Ray?

 

A: That's a good question. Really, I think about probably a year ago. We
just got to the point where nothing was really working for us, and I
knew that with the direction Ray was going with the race teams, that
that was the way to go, that was the right thing to do. I feel like he
knew that I could drive the racecars, but we just weren't gelling
together. Not he and I as much, I guess you can say we just weren't
producing. We weren't really performing, and then, all of a sudden, it
was just like a light came on, and I don't really know what it was, but
all of a sudden we just started clicking and running better, and Ray's
and my relationship got stronger and better, and it was just like a
snowball effect. It just took off, and he'd always said that. It's just
that the little things would happen that will do that if you've got a
good race team. And he's also done a good job putting the right people
in place around me. I mean, I'm probably not the easiest person to get
along with as far as racecars and all that stuff, but I feel that he's
done an outstanding job getting the right people around me that could
work with me, and I could work with them. And I think that's probably
the biggest turnaround. I mean, just the people, and as far as he and I
and the snowball thing, our relationship just keeps getting stronger and
stronger everyday and better and, great guy. I mean, I love him to
death, and I feel that we've got a strong future together because of
that. So, I mean, not really one thing defines that moment, it's just a
lot of things that were built up together there.

 

Q: But was there like one race, or one incident? I remember when you won
the pole. Was it soon after that? 

 

A: Last year? Yeah, it was probably. I mean we'd run good one week, and
we'd feel really good about it, but then bad another week, like at the
beginning of last year. So, you never were for sure, what that moment
was going to be. So every time I had my confidence up, it was all
getting down the next week, and I think the team had that same thing
going on. Then towards the end of the year, we started really rolling
and being consistent, and running in the top five, top 10 every week,
and that probably was the biggest change. I want to say the last
probably 10 or 15 races last year. Through that whole little period
there was a change for everything for me, you know, for myself
personally at Evernham Motorsports, and Ray and I, we decided, let's
stay together and let's make this thing work, and we've done that. He's
done everything he's said he'd do also, and that was all in that range
of time.

 

Q: With you traveling the circuit to new venues, what differences do you
see in fans' response? What's the most unique thing you've seen from
fans?

 

A: It's just unbelievable. I guess you'd say it's the race fans'
response we get out there. Not just us, but the NASCAR Nextel Cup
Series. When you roll into town, whether it's a new place or an old
place, the new places are just unbelievable, and by the time you think
that that's the most excited you've seen a bunch of race fans, the next
week you go back to a place that you've been to forever, and they're the
same way. I think that the enthusiasm and the excitement of what NASCAR
does... I mean, every show we go and put on now is unbelievable. I think
it keeps everybody, not just the new fans, but even the old fans, it
just keeps them on their feet, and it keeps them always excited about
something. It doesn't ever seem like there's a dull moment in this
world, and NASCAR and Nextel have both done a great job this year really
promoting and getting fans like that. You know, I can't really say if
there's one unique thing other than it just amazes me at how many people
enjoy and love our sport.

 

Q: Any plans to test on the repaved Martinsville Speedway?

 

A: Yeah, I'm sure one of the three of us will. You know, Kasey and I
tested there earlier this year, and I'm not sure, are they going to have
it done for the next race here? (Yes) Man, that's probably the best
thing I've heard all year. I hated that surface there. You couldn't get
any grip, the racing wasn't very good, and I'm just terrible there. So,
yeah, hopefully we'll be able to test there. I know we've saved a couple
more for the last few races there. It'd be great to test there, and I'm
looking forward to it if we can, but if not, I'm sure we know hopefully
enough of what we've got going with our cars that we should be OK there
anyway. I'm just really glad to hear that Martinsville's doing that,
because that's what they needed. 

 

Q: Last week Kasey was talking about the relationship with Bill and the
team. What's Bill's interaction with the team now, and what's the
general attitude? He seems to be having a lot more fun.

 

A: Bill's been awesome. He's been great this year. He's done a lot of
testing for us, and every time I see him he's happy, and I think he's
just really enjoying what he's doing. A lot of that, too, is just
spending time with his family. I think his son's racing now, or starting
to race go-karts, and I think Bill's really got a new outlook on
everything. He's just done a great job. He's just done an unbelievable
amount of testing for us, and as a matter of fact, I think he's in
Kentucky either today or tomorrow testing other stuff. I mean, he's up
there all the time testing for us, and I think that a lot of what's
helped us grow and make our racecars better has come from Bill testing
for us and doing a lot of stuff for us that's really helped Kasey and me
both. 

 

Q: After you went to Evernham from Penske, and there were struggles, was
there ever a moment when you said, why can't I get it?

 

A: Yeah, that was definitely going on. I think we all had so many high
expectations of each other. Whether Ray and I, and the team and I, or
whatever, and you know when you go into a situation like that and it
doesn't work, even the first couple of races, even the test. It's just
like the bottom's knocked out from under you, and it takes a long time
to prove that and build back up where you need to be, and there's been a
bunch of times when I've been like, 'What's going on?' And I couldn't
figure it out, and Ray couldn't figure it out. That's when it comes down
to people, and we've got great people. Let me tell you, we've got
awesome people that work at Evernham Motorsports. But it's the kind of
deal where if you don't put them all in the right places, it's like
you've got everybody that's great in their positions, but if they're not
communicating well, then nothing's going to happen. You don't really get
far enough like you need to be, and that's what we've got going on now.
I mean, little things I say on the radio that if I were on another team,
they probably wouldn't understand for nothing, and that same way with
this team here. Now that they understand when I say that it's doing
this, or the car's doing that, we already know what the magnitude of
that is and Kenny and Josh and the guys know how big of a change to make
on the car. And if you don't have that, it's hard to run good anywhere.
There were definitely times that I was thinking this wasn't going to
work and we'd be parting ways, and we just kept working through it. And
like I said, Ray's just done an awesome job and a great job for building
that feeling around me that it's all about the people, and we just kept
going from there.

 

Q: Were you concerned about your future or your career?

 

A: Oh, definitely. There were points where I was like, 'You know, it's
good when everything's going great, and your stock's up, you can get a
ride anywhere, you know in a racecar.' But, also, when it's down, you
just keep going downhill further and further.  And that doesn't matter
if that's the driver, or if we're having bad pit stops, or if things are
going wrong, or the car's not handling. The driver's still the one that
everybody reads in that paper that finished 38th or 23rd or in the back,
and it doesn't take long for everything you've gained in your career to
lose it all. As far as your credibility and reputation and stuff, as far
as being a driver, there's definitely times I was wondering what I was
going to do with my future and I'm sure Ray was too, you know, about
looking for a driver. So, the good thing about it was that we were both
honest with each other and just kept working through it. Now, I'm just
thankful everyday for Ray sticking with me and believing in me and
putting people around me to get the job done. 

 

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