Jeremy Mayfield Focused on 2005



December 8, 2004

by Ron Felix

Jeremy Mayfield
There seems to be a sense of urgency at Evernham Motorsports in 2005. The 'Chase for the Championship' will do that to a team.

In fact it will do it for a lot of teams next year -- to be a little better prepared entering a new season -- to get in position to get into the top-ten in the final ten races. The teams now know what to expect with the new points system and know that they will have to throw everything they have at achieving that goal.

When it comes time to funnel forty-three teams in to a ten place hole, something's is going to give. Good and great teams are going to be left out.

Jeremy Mayfield and Kasey Kahne were at the Nashville Superspeedway on Tuesday, shaking down the new Dodge Charger, scheduled to return to the track next season. It will mark the first time since 1977 that a Dodge Charger has seen competition in NASCAR.

You'd think this would be the time of the year that a driver could get some rest, but not so.

"You hear people talk about an off season," says Mayfield, "but I don't know what that means. We left the banquet in New York and went right to work on this project. It will be a continual effort to get the new car up to where it needs to be. The new car adds an element of unknown to next year, so there won't be any standing around."

Mayfield wasn't sure if the team was working on anything specific in the Nashville test. His job was to drive and make the car go as fast as possible.

Before the 2005 season approaches, the team, Mayfield and team owner Ray Evernham will organize the year. Break it up into sections and analyze all big and small details.

"I'm totally focused on next year and what we have to do to get the job done," Mayfield continued, "we have weekly meetings to determine where we're at and where we're going, what we need to work on. We will have a plan in place before racing rolls around again. We'll look at the tracks that we have problems with and see if there isn't a way to improve the performance at that tracks."

Evernham and Mayfield have grown closer to each other since the two nearly split during the 2003 season.

"We weren't running well in mid season," says Mayfield, "Richard Childress and I had talked of getting together. To me it was nearly a done deal -- but you know what? Once it was decided that I was going to make the jump to Richard Childress Racing, we started running better here. Ray and I had discussions of going our separate ways but now this new found energy, within the team, brought everything back to life for the both of us."

"Ray and I have become good friends," continued Mayfield, "We talk a lot more than we used to and we can kid each other now, it wasn't that way in the beginning."

Mayfield drove his way into the top-ten in the twenty-sixth race of 2004 by winning at Richmond last year. He'd like to not have the added pressure -- by having to do it that way again, but he'll take it anyway he can get it.