Jeremy Mayfield chasing first Carteret win

Jeremy Mayfield, pictured at Coastal Plains Raceway in 2002. (Andy Marquis photo)

Jeremy Mayfield is returning to Bobby Watson’s Carteret County Speedway on Saturday in pursuit of his 18^th Grand National Super Series victory and his first at the coastal track.

Mayfield, who leads the series standings with just four feature races remaining, has never won at Carteret County Speedway in eight tries.  This weekend, he will get his ninth and 10^th attempt in the John The Greek Restaurant Equipment Battle at the Beach.

“We want to continue on what we’ve been doing,” Mayfield said.  “We got a good thing going and I’ve been running good every week and we feel like we will go there and have the same results, hopefully have a shot to win the race.  If not, hopefully have a good points night because we’re leading points and we’re going to Dominion after that.  This weekend, we’re just trying to continue doing what we do very week and hopefully everything will work out for us.”

The Grand National Super Series runs twin 50-lap races for their events, instead of one race.  Last race, in twins at Franklin County Speedway in Callaway, Virginia, Mayfield picked up a win and a runner-up finish.  To date, he has six wins on the season.

Mayfield competed regularly in the NASCAR Cup Series from 1995 through 2007 and made occasional starts in 2008 and 2009.  In that timespan, he scored five career wins, including a last lap bump-and-run on Dale Earnhardt at Pocono Raceway in 2000 and a clutch performance at Richmond Raceway in 2004 to qualify for the inaugural NASCAR Playoff field.

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Now, the Grand National Super Series keeps him on the track.

“It’s a lot of fun,” Mayfield explained.  “Especially because we get to do what we want to do and we race like we want to race and there’s not a lot of politics and we just go out and run and have fun every week.  It’s not high pressure situation.  We have fun doing it and we keep it fun without getting too serious.  It’s serious in one aspect but there’s not a lot of pressure.”

Mayfield is also fielding a car this weekend for Chrissy Wallace, who is the daughter of former NASCAR Cup Series driver Mike Wallace.  Mayfield was teammates with Mike’s brother, Rusty Wallace, and Mike Wallace completed the 2001 NASCAR Cup Series season driving Mayfield’s car after an accident at Dover Motor Speedway cut his season short.

“She does a great job,” Mayfield said.  “She helps us work on the car and got a couple guys that help her work on it and we’ve had a lot of fun with her and hopefully we’re gonna do something with her next year.  Probably might even see Mike in a car this year, probably the Dominion race.  Mike’s a good guy and Chrissy’s a great girl and there’s a good family.”

The Grand National Super Series double feature is part of an action-packed night which also features the revival of the annual Madhouse at the Beach race for the Bowman Gray Stadium Sportsman and Street Stock divisions.  Legend Cars, U-CARs and the youth Juice Box racing will also be part of Saturday night’s John The Green Restaurant Equipment Battle at the Beach at Carteret County Speedway.