Dodge ball

Elliott, Mayfield making Cup scene their playground

Jeremy Mayfield and Bill Elliott are first-year teammates with Evernham Motorsports. Chris Stanford/Getty Images

By Denise N. Maloof, CNNSI.com

Ages are stacked like dominos at Evernham Motorsports: Bill Elliott, 46, the patriarch; Jeremy Mayfield, 32, the bridge-builder; and the youngster, Casey Atwood, 21.

The latter -- the team's future -- remains far from public consciousness early in 2002, but Atwood's teammates are inching toward its top. Mayfield's second-place finish at Las Vegas, coupled with Elliott's eighth-place showing, means points leader Sterling Marlin isn't the only Dodge driver on people's minds and tongues.

"We've completed every lap and we've had decent days," Elliott said. "You look at a lot of other teams that are good teams that are not faring so well. So, we gotta take advantage of everything we can while we can."

Elliott has, so far. In his second season with Evernham, he's rediscovered the spotlight. He stands sixth in the points, 105 behind Marlin, heading into this week's event at Atlanta Motor Speedway. Two top-15 efforts -- 11th at Daytona and Rockingham paired with last week's top-10 at Vegas -- have people talking about the one-time Winston Cup champion.

"Realistically, I think we've got a good shot at running well this year," Elliott said. "Whether a championship's in the deal, I have no idea. I think this is going to be kind of a topsy-turvy year for a lot of people. It's going to be depend on a lot of deals."

Some quick history: The plainspoken guy from Dawsonville, Ga., ruled the Winston Cup world in the mid-to-late 1980s. He won his title in 1988, finished in the top 10 in points for six of the next seven seasons, and became an owner-driver in 1995. What followed was perhaps his most frustrating run -- six topsy-turvy seasons filled with occasional highs (his 25th anniversary year in 2000) and more frequent lows (mechanical difficulties, injuries, ownership stress).

Elliott chucked it all after 2000, selling his team to Ray Evernham. He returned only to the driver's seat last year, not the office, and after a conspicuous debut -- remember that Daytona 500 pole? -- he disappeared until the season's second half.

"I think really our team started coming together in June, July and August," Elliott said.

The statistics bear him out. From June 10's ninth-place finish at Michigan, until Sept. 2's fifth-place at Darlington, Elliott logged seven top-10s in 12 races. His win at Miami on Nov. 11th, his first since 1994, testified to the team's progress. It also illuminated this year's goal: eliminating the roller-coaster of that ninth-place at Michigan, followed by a 27th at Pocono, followed by a ninth-place at Sears Point, followed by a 35th at Daytona, a 10th at Chicago, and so on.

Elliott prefers consistency, not championship talk.

"You've just got to go literally a race at a time and just see how things fall out," he said. "You try not to make mistakes, but yet you've got to run your race and you've got to be as competitive and as aggressive as you feel like you need to be each and every week."

As important this season, according to Elliott, is the addition of Mayfield. Taking over for Atwood in the No. 19, Mayfield endured wreck-marred finishes in his first two outings, a 39th at Daytona and a 29th at Rockingham, before breaking through in Vegas.

"We just need to keep whittling away at it," Elliott said. "The team's doing real well. I'm proud of what Jeremy's done. He's a good guy and I think a lot of him, and he's going to be a good asset for the race team."

"I think he's a big part of this deal," Mayfield said of Elliott. "We're just working hard and the whole team's working together really good and it's just been a pleasure to work with Bill Elliott. Just to hear what he has to say about the racing and the comments he makes on the chassis and stuff. It's just been a pleasure for me."

The two aren't new friends. Mayfield said Elliott took him under his wing during his first two Cup seasons of 1993 and '94, when Mayfield drove for Sadler Racing and the team rented its engines from Ernie Elliott, Bill's brother. Though 14 years younger, Mayfield harks from a similar mold; he loves the hands-on, wrench-turning aspect of his sport.

"I think we really do speak exactly the same language," Mayfield said. "Just because the last couple weeks there's times we've tried different things on our set-ups and I went right back to what Bill's was running, put exactly what he had on his car in, and if felt great. And I think that's a good sign for the future of this race team, is having two drivers that can run the same type of set-ups."

"The reason I got in racing wasn't for the money, wasn't for the fame, wasn't for the glory," Elliott said. "I just enjoyed working and driving a race car. And that's more back to what I can do today. I can't necessarily work on them like I used to, because of all the other distractions, but I still enjoy driving."

It's an attitude that seems to be influencing Mayfield. Soured by last year's divorce from Penske Racing, an organization he'd been with since 1997, Mayfield appears rejuvenated, a perk not lost on Elliott.

"He's young," Elliott said. "He's got a good future ahead of him. I think Ray'll take care of him and I think he's in a position he likes where he's at right now real well."

So does Elliott. Paired with a crew chief he trusts, Mike Ford, he's also made peace with the driver's seat again.

"I guess last year it hadn't wore off that I'd gotten out of the ownership of a race-team business," Elliott said. "And now I kind of feel like it's reality. And I look at Ray and see the stress that he's under and the amount of directions that he's been pulled in and I'm thinking, 'God, you know, that could be me.' And I realize, thank God, it's not."

 

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