NASCAR Cup

Talladega II: Jeremy Mayfield preview

Jeremy Mayfield No. 19 Dodge Dealers Intrepid R/T FUEL CELL RULE FOR TALLADEGA "I'm not quite sure what it's going to do. It has the potential to be the same type of racing, but you just don't know. I think it's good that we're looking at ways to ...

Published: Oct 2, 2002, 9:45 PM

Copy link

Share on Viber

Add as a preferred source

Jeremy Mayfield No. 19 Dodge Dealers Intrepid R/T

FUEL CELL RULE FOR TALLADEGA
"I'm not quite sure what it's going to do. It has the potential to be the same type of racing, but you just don't know. I think it's good that we're looking at ways to make it better. It might spread things out a little bit. It's definitely going to put a lot on the pit crews to perform and do well. It's sure going to be interesting to see this weekend."

DRAFTING
"I like running there. I've done pretty well there in the past. I've had a couple of poles and led some races. I like the track. You've got to have the whole package to run well -- good aero and good motor. This weekend you need good pit stops too with the new fuel cell rule and like I said before, working the draft is key too. Anything can happen. We're looking forward to bringing our No. 19 Dodge Dealers/ UAW Dodge down to Talladega after our top-10 run in Kansas."

RUNNING AT TALLADEGA
"I like running there. I've done pretty well there in the past. I've had a couple of poles and led some races. I like the track. You've got to have the whole package though - good aero, good motor and this weekend good pit stops. Like I said before knowing how to work the draft is key too. Anything can happen. We're looking forward to bringing our No. 19 Dodge Dealers/ UAW Dodge down to Talladega after our top-10 run in Kansas."

RACE NOTES
Jeremy Mayfield will be driving the No. 19 Dodge Dealers/UAW Dodge that he last raced to a 13th place finish at Daytona in July.

STATS & FACTS

* This weekend's race marks Mayfield's 267th career start in the NASCAR Winston Cup Series and 17th visit to Talladega Superspeedway. Mayfield's best finish at Talladega came in October 1998. He moved up from a 24th place start to lead for one lap before finishing fifth. Mayfield has two poles at the track (July 1996 and April 2000), one top-five, one top-10, and has led four races for 22 laps.

* At Talladega in April, Mayfield worked the draft in the early stages of the race. He shot to the front at various times throughout the race, taking the lead from eventual winner, Dale Earnhardt, Jr., on laps 33 and 66. On lap 165,"the big one" hit, setting off a chain reaction that involved 24 cars. The No. 19 Dodge Intrepid R/T sustained substantial damage. The Dew Crew worked quickly on the badly damaged race car to get it back out on the track. Due to their work, Mayfield was able to gain valuable finishing spots, finishing 36th.

* Mayfield pulled off his third top-15 qualifying run in three races, starting Sunday's Winston Cup race at Kansas in 14th place. He quickly advanced into the 11th spot in the opening laps and worked to maintain that position throughout the race. Mayfield took on four tires on his final pit stop and was the last car on the lead lap. An on-track incident with less than 10 laps to go sent the Dew Crew scrambling in the pits to repair Mayfield's No. 19 Dodge Intrepid R/T so he could finish the race on the lead lap and in the top 10. The Dew Crew succeeded and Mayfield held on to finish in ninth place, the last car on the lead lap.

* Mayfield is on a hot streak, recording two top ten finishes in the past four races. His ninth place finish at Kansas last week moved him into the top 25 in the Winston Cup points race. He is in 24th place, 143 points out of 23rd and 246 points out of 20th place.

* Mayfield is starting an average of 3.17 places higher this season that at this point last year.

* As tight as the Talladega track may be, race winners here have started in every position from one to 18 and as far back as 36.

* Mayfield's second-place run this year at Las Vegas was his best run at the track and his best overall finish since the 2000 Pennzoil 400 at Homestead-Miami where he finished second. The finish also qualified Mayfield for the Winston No Bull 5 $1 million bonus during the May race in Charlotte.

* Coming into the 2002 season, Mayfield had 237 starts, with six poles (two at Talladega and one at Darlington, Dover, Rockingham, and Texas), three wins (two at Pocono and one at California), 33 top-fives and 58 top-10s. His most recent win came at Pocono in June of 2000.

-em-

We want your opinion!

What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?

Take our 5 minute survey.

- The Motorsport.com Team

Read and post comments

Share Or Save This Story

Copy link

Share on Viber

Previous article Talladega II: Jay Sauter to drive for Marcis Auto Racing

Next article Talladega II: Dave Blaney preview

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

View More & Comment

Latest news

Winners and losers from a different NASCAR Cup finale at Homestead

NASCAR Cup

NAS NASCAR Cup

Homestead-Miami

1 min

Winners and losers from a different NASCAR Cup finale at Homestead

How Aston Martin’s fuel gamble in Monza WEC fell short by just three seconds

WEC

WEC WEC

Monza

45 min

How Aston Martin’s fuel gamble in Monza WEC fell short by just three seconds

Brad Keselowski expects "lots of soul searching" in off-season as he reflects on 2026

NASCAR Cup

NAS NASCAR Cup

Homestead-Miami

54 min

Brad Keselowski expects "lots of soul searching" in off-season as he reflects on 2026

What's behind Oscar Piastri's split with Mark Webber – and what it means for his F1 career

Formula 1

F1 Formula 1

Sao Paulo GP

1 h

What's behind Oscar Piastri's split with Mark Webber – and what it means for his F1 career

Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.

From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.

You have 2 options:

Become a subscriber.
Disable your adblocker.

Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here

Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page

Manage Alerts