Checker Auto Parts 500 - Jeremy Mayfield Notes

No. 19 Dodge Dealers/UAW Dodge Charger Race Facts
NASCAR Nextel Cup Series --- Phoenix International Raceway

Driver: Jeremy Mayfield
Team Director: Kenny Francis
Team Owner: Ray Evernham
Chassis: No. 120
Car Info: Started 10th at Richmond in the fall and finished 6th after leading 17 laps

Jeremy Mayfield Quotes:
“We’ve got a long way to go and a short time to get there. Only two races are left to get back on track and the No.19 Dodge running up front where it should be. The problem isn’t for a lack of effort. Anything that could go wrong seems to have gone wrong since we made the Chase.

“Now, it’s about how we finish the season. We may finish 10th in the Chase, but it won’t be because we willingly accept that. That’s not Jeremy Mayfield. That’s not Evernham Motorsports. That’s not my team. We know our potential. We have great equipment. We have a quality team.

“These next two races are as important to the No. 19 team as they are to the teams at the top of the Chase standings, but our focus also extends right up to the 2006 Daytona 500. If something is missing, we’ll find it. If something must change, we’ll change it. The resources are available. Just like an engine, everything has to be in sync.”

STATS & FACTS

JEREMY MAYFIELD AT PHOENIX
This weekend marks Mayfield’s 12th career visit to Phoenix International Raceway. He has one top five, one top 10 and has led 46 laps at the track.

Mayfield’s most recent visit to Phoenix, he started 8th and raced the Dodge Charger to a 13th place finish. Mayfield’s first start at the track came in November of 1996, when he started 10th. He earned his best finish at Phoenix in 2000 when he started 25th and finished second.

COMING OFF OF TURN FOUR – EIGHT DOWN, TWO TO GO
Mayfield is 10th in the Chase for the Championship standings; he’s 407 points behind the leader.

In the span of 25 races this year, Mayfield climbed from a low ranking of 26th after Las Vegas to a career-high Chase ranking of seventh after Dover.

BETTER THAN AVERAGE
Mayfield is in a two-way tie for the 10th-best average finish (16th) among drivers who have completed all 34 races this season.

The No. 19 Dodge Charger has earned an average start of 15th this season. Of the drivers who have competed in all 34 races this year, Mayfield is ranked eighth, in a three-way tie with teammate Kasey Kahne and veteran driver Mark Martin.

MAYFIELD KEEPS GOING… AND GOING… AND GOING…
Mayfield’s 98.5% laps completed percentage ranks fourth among drivers who have competed in every race this year. Mayfield has finished 24 of 34 races on the lead lap, and he has only one DNF in 2005.

2005 CAREER BESTS
Mayfield claimed his fifth NASCAR Nextel Cup victory at the two-mile Michigan Int’l Speedway in August.

Mayfield’s fourth-place finish at Indianapolis was a career-high finish at the historic track. Mayfield also notched a career-best finish at Talladega when he finished fourth in April, and he tied his career-best seventh place finish at Infineon Raceway in June.

MAYFIELD WINS AT MICHIGAN!!!
Mayfield scored his fifth career NASCAR Nextel Cup victory in his 368th career start in the GFS Marketplace 400 at Michigan International Speedway. The victory was Mayfield’s second win at Evernham Motorsports, and his first career win at Michigan.

The win marked the first time in team history that two Evernham Motorsports teammates have each won a Nextel Cup race in the same season. The win was also the first Dodge Charger victory at MIS since Richard Petty drove to the checkered flag in August, 1975.