You probably know Jeremy Mayfield as a NASCAR Winston Cup driver (and a good one at that, with two wins in the series), but perhaps you aren't aware that he's also a vagabond by nature. Mayfield is a free heart, a person who wants a sticker on the bumper of his car declaring, "Every day is a holiday." An older, more conservative Michael Kranefuss, his team owner, keeps vetoing the idea.
Mayfield realizes the catchphrase would do nothing to increase his speed. However, he says it is his way of expressing happiness at being a Winston Cup driver.
"This is all I have ever wanted to be," he attests. He says this after having been to NASCAR's place for making a man's skin crawl; a place where white knuckles show, the face turns red, and the tongue stammers to answer questions-the NASCAR trailer. Of course, like all good stories, that part comes later.
Prized PossessionsMayfield grew up on the outskirts of Owensboro, Kentucky, and his rise to the big league is amazing and somewhat humorous.
"When I was about 4 years old, my parents gave me one of those Indian motor scooters," he begins. "I rode it all the time, everywhere I'd go. My parents would say, 'Don't ride on the street,' or 'Don't ride in the woods.' As soon as they weren't looking, I'd be on the street or going through the woods."
Mayfield remembers the spankings his parents gave him. "Those didn't matter," he says. "I'd get a spanking and go right on with what I was doing, but if they threatened to take away my scooter, I'd straighten up immediately."
Mayfield's parents split when he was 10. "I wanted to race go-karts, so my mother finally bought me one. She would take me to the local track and hang around to watch. I guess it got a little boring, so she decided to get a go-kart of her own and race with us.
"One night I was leading a race, and this kart came up to pass me. I didn't know who it was, but when it started to pass on the outside, I spun it. It turned out to be my mother, and my daring move didn't go over so well around home for a few days."
Nevertheless, Mayfield may be the only driver in racing who can literally say he spun his mother out to win a race.
Later, Mayfield's father and uncle built a sportsman's car. "They let me work on the car and do the lettering," he says. "Finally, they let me drive it in a few races.
New Faces, New Places"I didn't seem to be making any progress in life. I was about 18 and decided if I was ever going to be a race driver, I had to leave Owensboro. So I packed up everything I owned in about three minutes and headed for Nashville.
"I walked into Earl Saddler's race shop down there in Tennessee and told him I needed a job. He said, 'You are just the man I'm looking for. Do you have enough experience to be a crew chief?' I told him that I did-at the time I didn't know there wasn't a crew. As it turned out, I was the crew and the crew chief."
Mayfield slowly worked his way through the ranks as a driver and was the '93 ARCA Rookie of the Year. He drove in a few Winston Cup races before joining Cale Yarborough's team as its driver. Kranefuss offered him a ride in September 1996. He won his first Winston Cup race at Pocono in 1998 and captured his third pole position in the big-league ranks for the Talladega race in April 2000. He won his first pole at Talladega in 1996 in Yarborough's car, and put the Kranefuss machine up front in 1998 at Texas. Mayfield posted his second Winston Cup victory at California the week after winning the pole at Talladega.
Troublesome TimesThat brings us to the other part of the story, the part Mayfield isn't quite as happy to talk about. Unless you've been living under a rock, you probably know that someone on Mayfield's team was caught slipping the car a high-octane mickey late in the race.
"We've been running well all season," he said right after his pole run at Talladega. "Winning the pole here is a breakthrough for us. I think I have as good a chance as anyone and a better chance than most."
But Mayfield finished 14th, and to make matters worse, a fuel sample taken from his car after the race showed an illegal substance had been added. It was after his rousing victory in California the following weekend when NASCAR's powers-that-be declared that Mayfield's fuel recipe at Talladega was refined, revised, and unfit for competition.
Mayfield was stripped of 151 Winston Cup points, dropping him from seventh to 14th in the standings. Kranefuss drew a $50,000 fine and had 151 team owner points taken away. Peter Sospenzo, Mayfield's crew chief, was suspended by NASCAR for more than a month (four Cup races and the non-points paying The Winston).
NASCAR allowed Mayfield and Kranefuss to keep the win, because it had determined that neither was aware the crewman was adding the fuel supplement. To their credit, both said they would not appeal the ruling body's decision. Whether or not they were aware when it happened, the team was still guilty of a rules infraction, they said. Like true sportsmen, Mayfield, Sospenzo, and Kranefuss all accepted the punishment doled out by NASCAR with dignity.
But hold on; that's not the end of the story-only the beginning of the second stanza. Mayfield put in an incredible performance the next week at California to win his second career Winston Cup race despite tremendous physical suffering. The oil cooler in the #12 Ford malfunctioned about 50 laps into the race, causing the oil in the reservoir behind Mayfield's seat to reach approximately 340 degrees. Despite burning his back on the griddle of his aluminum seat at the same temperature many people grill their steaks, the young driver held on for several hours to win the 250-lap race. Needless to say, if there was ever a race to celebrate winning, this was it.
Unfortunately, that's when round two with NASCAR began. Once again, the sanctioning body stepped in after detecting a rules infraction. This time it found the roof on Mayfield's car to be too low. The Penske-Kranefuss team declared it was because Mayfield, excited not only by the win but also by the opportunity to get out of his oven of a car, stood on the roof to get a better angle to spray his crew with champagne, Gatorade, and anything else he could get his hands on. NASCAR agreed the explanation was possible but still handed the team a $25,000 fine to get its point across.
Still, even after all this, the kid from Owensboro who packed in three minutes and moved away from his family in hopes of improving his driving career is just proud to be a Winston Cup driver. He still wants that decal declaring, "Every day is a holiday." Hey, maybe it's true that you do have to accept the bad with the good, but at least you can concentrate on the good along the way.