No. 19 Dodge Dealers/UAW Dodge Race Facts
EA Sports 500 --- Talladega Superspeedway
Driver: Jeremy Mayfield
Team Director: Kenny Francis
Team Owner: Ray Evernham
Chassis: No. 43
Car Info: Ran 21st at Talladega(a)
22nd at Daytona (b)
JEREMY MAYFIELD QUOTES
“Something I learned a long time ago about Talladega, you’re either real good off the truck or you’re not. Whatever you’ve got is pretty much what you have all weekend. All you can hope for is to have a good enough car to run up front and, hopefully, stay away from the trouble. There are still going to be cars running in a pack, so it’s definitely a test of nerves from the green flag to the checkered flag. Staying focused is something you know you have to do. You don’t have the opportunity to take a mental break, it’s not an option. You try not to be the one that makes the mistake that creates the problem.
“You don’t see new teams come into Daytona and Talladega and immediately run good. It just takes time to get there. Teams that run good at those tracks are the teams that have been around for a while – teams with experience. The teams that run good have had the R&D time and collected a lot of data. We’re getting there with the two cars from Evernham Motorsports. We’re getting better each time out, and that’s because we’ve been able to utilize the data we collect at each restrictor plate race.”
STATS & FACTS
CAREER AT TALLADEGA
This weekend’s race marks Mayfield’s 21st visit to Talladega Superspeedway. He has three poles, one top-five, one top-10 finish and has led seven races for 43 laps at the track. He earned his best finish of fifth at the track in the fall of 1998.
POLE-HAPPY AT TALLADEGA
Mayfield earned his seventh career pole position, and his first for Evernham Motorsports, in last year’s Aaron’s 499 at Talladega Superspeedway. The pole was Mayfield’s third at Talladega, and made him one of only three active drivers to score three or more poles at the track (Sterling Marlin - three, Bill Elliott - eight).
Mayfield earned his first career pole position at Talladega (DieHard 500 – 7/28/96), making him the only active driver to have earned his first career pole at the track. He earned his second Talladega pole (third overall) in April of 2000.
WHAT A TURNAROUND
Mayfield is one NASCAR’s most improved Cup drivers after 28 races this year. His current ranking of 10th is 12 spots improved compared to his ranking at this point in the 2003 season.
THE CHASE IS ON
After battling to a seventh place finish at Dover, Mayfield is 10th with eight races remaining in the 2004 Chase for the Nextel Cup. Mayfield is just 22 points out of the ninth position and 50 points out of eighth.
IN GOOD STANDING
After qualifying for NASCAR’s 2004 Chase for the Nextel Cup, Mayfield clinched a top-10 season ranking for the second time in his career. Mayfield finished the 1998 season in a career-high seventh place championship ranking.
MAYFIELD ROCKS & ROLLS AT RICHMOND!!
Mayfield earned his fourth career victory (first since Pocono-a 6/19/00), and first with Evernham Motorsports when he took the checkered flag at Richmond this month.
The victory was also the first for Team Director, Kenny Francis.
Mayfield also became the first driver in NASCAR Cup history to score a win in the No. 19 racecar since its first entry in 1975.
