Young racer knew it would be tough

By DICK BRINSTER

AP Sports Writer

When Jeremy Mayfield moved into the high-rent district earlier this season, he looked around the neighborhood and realized his might be just a short-term stay.

Those things happen when you're an upstart in the scramble for the Winston Cup championship, and the guys trying to buy you out of the biggest house on the block are high rollers named Gordon, Martin and Jarrett.

After leading in the points race as recently as six weeks ago, Mayfield has fallen on tough times, and now stands fifth. But he remains undeterred.

"Yeah, I bet there were some people who figured we'd do better if we didn't make a big down payment," Mayfield said. "But just because there has been a little rain, doesn't mean it's time to sell the farm and head for higher ground."

Even after a disastrous finish of 42nd Saturday in the Brickyard 400.

"Well, I've finished first this year, and now I've finished 42nd," he said. "When you win, it's an addictive feeling, something you just don't want to forget."

But there have been major setbacks since the 29-year-old got his first career victory, six weeks ago in the Pocono 500. Poor finishes in Loudon, N.H., Long Pond, Pa., and Indianapolis have left him nothing more than a longshot in the title chase.

The toughest to accept was the debacle at the Brickyard.

"Way back in the back is like sticking your finger in a light socket," he said. "You'll do anything you can to avoid that feeling again."

But there wasn't much Mayfield could do to avoid falling from the top, considering the surge that has put Jeff Gordon in front as he pursues his third series championship in four years. Even Mark Martin and Dale Jarrett are losing ground with each race.

Mayfield was poised for great race at Indy after qualifying 12th. But he cut a tire and found the wall after moving all the way to second on lap 25.

A week earlier, after starting 25th in the Pennsylvania 500, Mayfield motored all the way to fourth before being collected in a crash. Before that, he went from 20th to eighth in the Jiffy Lube 300 at New Hampshire International Raceway, only to cut a tire with eight laps remaining.

But misfortune has done nothing to shake the confidence of Mayfield or crew chief Paul Andrews.

"If we hadn't been running as well as we have the past few races, it might be harder to keep everybody from getting down," Andrews said. "But we've had pretty good cars and pretty good runs in all of those races.

"A tire goes down at New Hampshire ... we get caught up in somebody else's deal at Pocono ... we cut a tire at Indianapolis. It's all stuff that isn't anybody's fault. It's the kind of racing luck you get sometimes."

Andrews, crew chief when the late Alan Kulwicki won the Winston Cup title in 1992, laments such things as a pitfall of the business.

"Every once in a while it doesn't make any difference how well prepared you are or how ready you are to race," he said. "Bad luck snags you."

"Maybe now we've gotten that out of the way, and we can start looking for some good luck again."

Despite trailing reigning champion Gordon by 361 points with 14 races remaining, Mayfield is not giving up.

"The desire to win is one of the reasons I think this Mobil 1 Taurus team is going to stay right in the thick of this points chase to the end," he said. "We've fallen back some the past few weeks, and maybe we were due for some bad luck.

"But I'd like to think all of that is behind us now and we are going to start having some smooth sailing again."

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