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Back for more Mayfield returns to Pocono with retribution on his mind
ATLANTA (CNNSI.com) -- The hottest team the past three years at the 2.5-mile, triangular-shaped Pocono (Pa.) Raceway belongs to Jeremy Mayfield and the Mobil 1 Taurus Ford. Winston Cup returns to Pocono this week, and Mayfield is ready to pick up right where they left off. Mayfield has won two of the last six Cup races at Pocono, and most racing observers feel that victory total should be three -- in July 2000, Mayfield was headed to a second consecutive victory when a tire cut coming out of the second turn of the final lap of the race. Still, Mayfield and the Mobil 1 team have won two races in the past three seasons at Pocono, including his incredible last-lap pass of Dale Earnhardt coming out of the third -- and final -- turn on the last lap of this race last year.
"As good a time as we've had at Pocono the past few years, we're going in there this week feeling the track owes us one. I guess that doesn't sound very nice, but the race last July was really a heartbreaker for us. Even after the big win in June, going from the front to 10th between the next-to-last turn and the finish line really hurt. "We're going back into that place this week loaded for bear, figuring the track owes us something and figuring this Mobil 1 bunch still has a little something for the track. We've had a great car there in the past, fantastic cars last year. And we're looking to pick up right where we left off." One of a handful of drivers to find victory lane in the history of the unique track, Kyle Petty laughs when he recalls it. "If it would happen to anybody, it would happen to me," he says, but his victory in the June race of 1993 came in an event with probably one of the strangest episodes in NASCAR history. An early caution was thrown as Petty and Davey Allison raced through the first turn after a fan had climbed the infield fence, ran across the track on the straightaway between the first and second turns, climbed the outside wall and raced into the woods surrounding the racetrack. Before he was arrested, the fan nearly caused a second caution when he became disoriented in the woods near the track and built a fire for "rescuers" -- a fire from which the smoke nearly brought out a second caution. "Pocono is a different track from anything we run on, and that might be the reason so many strange things tend to happen there," says Petty. "A lot of times overcoming the strange stuff -- the bizarre stuff that happens there from time to time -- is the secret to doing well there. A lot of tracks, you have to beat the line or beat the heat or have a great engine or whatever," he says. "That kind of stuff is pretty important at Pocono but it’s the guys who beat the strange stuff -- whether it’s the weather or animals on the track or, once for me, people on the track -- who end up doing the best there. "Even without the strange stuff, I like Pocono," says Petty. "Any driver likes the tracks where he runs well, and he doesn't particularly care for the tracks where he doesn't run well. Because of that, I like Pocono. I've won there. I've run pretty good there a lot of times. John Andretti also heads to Pocono, where he's had more of his share of bad luck at the superspeedway. Last year in this race Andretti qualified on the outside pole, and looked to have one of the fastest cars early in the race before a problem on pit road put the team a lap down. Andretti returned for the July race and again qualified in the top 15 before engine problems sidelined the team early in the race. Andretti, who was born just down the road in Bethlehem, Pa., is looking to turn his luck around. "It's funny in a way. I really love the Mattiolis (owners of Pocono Raceway), they are great people, but I really want to win their money and their trophy," says Andretti. "I try every year to take it from them, but I just can't seem to take as much of from them as I want. We just run into some bad luck every time at that place." Mayfield can sympathize. "You ask around this sport and you find out just about everybody has been living under a black cloud most of their Winston Cup careers anyway," he says. "I can kind of see that. It's just the nature of the sport. No matter how many races you win, you’ve always lost more than you've won. Wins are precious and they are tough to come by for everybody. Losses are a dime a dozen."
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