Mayfield

It wasn't supposed to be like this. Jeremy Mayfield was supposed to leave a tense situation and find happiness -- and success -- with Ray Evernham.

But as his old horse, the Roger Penske-owned No. 12 Ford, rode ahead to a second-place finish with rookie Ryan Newman behind the wheel in Sunday's Sirius Satellite Radio at the Glen, Mayfield grunted out a 15th-place finish in a race that he briefly led.

The showing, although nowhere nearly as strong as his old car's, was actually his best in the No. 19 Dodge in four weeks and his sixth best finish of the season -- a testimant to just how tough his first year driving Evernham's No. 19 Dodge has been. Last year, Mayfield was released as driver of the 12 car after repeatedly complaining about the team and the resources available to him.

This year, he hasn't been nearly as competitive as in years past. Mayfield is 28th in the points standings.

"I'm happy with the team," Mayfield said. "The results are not there and we all know that, but it's still been a good year. I feel like the second half of the season will be better for us. The honeymoon is out of the way I guess you'd say. Now we can focus on what we've got to do and that's racing. The thing I'm happiest with is the progress of the team and the progress I've made as a driver."

Although this progress has not translated to strong runs, yet, Mayfield feels confident that things are headed in the right direction - that being the same direction.

Mayfield said his team and Bill Elliott's team are working well together and looking for the same things in their setups, unlike how he describes the situation with his old teammate, Rusty Wallace.

	Jeremy Mayfield is happy with his move to Dodge, despite struggling on the track.

Soon enough, he believes he'll have both the happiness and success he left for.

"We keep making ourselves better week in and week out," he said. "It seemed like when I first started the teams were kind of going in opposite directions. Now it's different. I want us to keep going in the same direction so we don't have all this Jeremy-Rusty stuff. I don't want Bill and I to be going in opposite directions."

"From where I came from it was a two-car team, but it really wasn't. It was two separate teams. Here, it's like one team. It's pretty cool to walk in the shop and everybody is working together.

"I feel good when Bill sits on the pole. When he runs good, I feel good about that. Before, if I ran good, Rusty didn't feel too good about that. That's a good feeling for me. It's very important to be on a team like that. That's been the biggest transition for me. It's really not been a Ford to a Dodge or a Dodge to a Ford. It's more with the teams. That's the biggest difference."

But as Mayfield and Elliott are moving in the same direction with respect to approaching the race, they're moving in opposite directions with respect to finishing the race.

Mayfield has finished outside the top-20 13 times and outside the top-30 on 10 occassions.

"I feel like we're moving forward in all the right areas and all the right ways," Mayfield said. "Everything Ray does is to move forward. I think you're going to see it more from this point on.

"It's been a building year for the 19 team and, really, Evernham Motorsports. Bill has been the solid car week in and week out. I think now you'll see the 19 moving back up to where it needs to be and hopefully you'll see the 9 and 19 real close like Rusty and I started in '98."

That's going to take some time, although Mayfield believes he's close after his 15th-place effort in Sunday's race.

"If the cautions had gone our way we would have been in good shape," Mayfield said. "When you start in the back you've got to gamble. You get out of sync with everybody, but our car was fast. We'll keep working and keep getting better and better. We finished 15th, and that's what we needed. We haven't finished in a long time, and we've just got to keep getting better."

Even though Mayfield realizes that success is still a year or two away, this has been one a fun year for the Kentucky native. It's been fun because he's happy to be racing.

"To me personally, it's been a good year," he said. "I've just quietly done my own thing and the 19 car just keeps building what we've got going on. I think that's been good for us. Sitting back looking at everything.

"From the outside looking in you step back and say why is all this stuff happening. It's kind of weird. For me personally, it hasn't been so much a weird year. It's just been a year where I'm getting back on track. There are a lot of issues that somebody's got to handle and somebody's got to fix, but I don't know who that is or what it is."

Rupen Fofaria is a beat writer for the Raleigh News & Observer.