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Mayfield's progress stalled

His No. 12 team has gone backward after offseason changes, and he's miffed.

By JOANNE KORTH

© St. Petersburg Times,
published September 8, 2001

Jeremy Mayfield is jealous.

Every once in a while, his No. 12 Ford runs at the front of the Winston Cup pack and he gets a close-up look at the drivers who race for the lead every week.

He wants what they have.

Frustrated with yet another up-and-down season at Penske Racing, Mayfield let it be known recently that if the No. 12 team cannot be a consistent threat to win races he wants to go elsewhere.

"I feel like right now I'm better than I've ever been as a driver," said Mayfield, who is under contract with owner Roger Penske through 2003. "I want it more than I've ever wanted it. And I'm wasting time. We need to really look at this and figure out what's best for all of us."

Mayfield, 32, has long been considered one of NASCAR's rising young stars, but in his eighth full season is yet to fulfill that promise. Winless in 2001, he is 21st in the Winston Cup standings.

Flashes of success -- three career victories and a seventh-place finish in the 1998 standings -- no longer sustain him. Mayfield is ready to get off the roller coaster.

"He's a racer, there's no doubt about that," his crew chief, Peter Sospenzo, said. "He wants the best of everything. When you're racing against someone with something better than you, you want to have it, too. We want to get to where a bad day is a top 10."

Mayfield was runner-up three times in the final six races in 2000 and confidence was at an all-time high going into the offseason. But internal changes, he said, undermined his success. "We killed it," Mayfield said. "And I don't know anybody in the garage area who would have changed everything on our race team after running that good. Lots of things changed that I don't understand. ... You sure don't fix something that ain't broke."

Mayfield joined the Penske racing conglomerate in 1998 when his team owner, Michael Kranefuss, sold half of his team to Penske, who was looking for a teammate for Rusty Wallace. After a promising first season, the cooperative effort fizzled because Mayfield and Wallace prefer different setups.

With five races left last season, Penske bought out Kranefuss completely and before this season hired first-year manager Tom DeLoach to oversee day-to-day operations. Other changes followed.

"I thought we were going to continue on like it was the last six races," Mayfield said. "All those people might still be there, but they're in different positions or they don't have any control. I don't understand that. And I can't get any answers."

With newcomer Ryan Newman set to run a full Winston Cup schedule for Penske next season, Mayfield also must be concerned that the Wallace protege will relegate him to third-team status. And when was the last time anyone's third team was any good?

Mayfield, because he remains under contract, said he has not spoken to other owners in the Winston Cup garage area and is committed first to fixing the No. 12 team. But as frustrations mount, he cannot help but mull the possibilities, most notably Richard Childress' need to hire a driver for the No. 31 team next season.

"We keep going in a circle. We have things like alternator wires that fall off, a fuel cell that one week doesn't pick up all the fuel, a transmission leak two weeks in a row. We've got good people on the race team. I don't feel like it's the guys working on the car at all. I think it starts early on.

"If you're going to run consistent, you better build consistency within the foundation. ... When you hear about opportunities coming along such as the 31, you start looking and go, "Man, I've been here how many years now and I'm going though the same old up-and-down season.' "

Perhaps, he said, it is time to move on.

"Maybe it is," Mayfield said. "Either that, or we need to figure out what's wrong with our team and fix it. All I want to do is run good every week. If it takes those changes, moving on, maybe that's what's best for everybody."

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