Top 30 Memories from 26 Years of Race Weekends at Atlanta Motor Speedway
#25- Jeremy Mayfield: “That Octane 93 you’re wearin'?” Girl: “Yeah you like it?” Jeremy: “Oh yeah.”
One of the best things about NASCAR is the access fans have to the drivers. Autographs are actually not that hard to get, except maybe from a few drivers. For a relatively small price, you can get access to the pit area, and if you know the right people you can even get into the garages where the teams work on the cars, and drivers are always walking right past you (thanks Aunt Dawn!). And in what other sport can you literally walk by the place where the athletes are spending the night? At Atlanta Motor Speedway, the drivers have motor homes in a fenced in area right in the middle of the infield. Every once in a while you can walk by the motor home lot and see a driver playing with his kids on the playground, getting interviewed on TV, or even standing by the fence signing autographs.
Pretty late one Saturday night while doing our traditional walk around the infield, we were passing by the driver’s motor home lot and saw a guy walking his dog on the grassy bank next to the fence. As we passed I realized it was Jeremy Mayfield, who at the time was driving for the great Ray Evernham (crew chief for Jeff Gordon when Jeff Gordon became “Jeff Gordon”) in the #19 Dodge Dealers Dodge. He was in a funny Dodge commercial at the time where a good looking girl is getting ready for a date, walks out the door and jumps in Jeremy’s racecar and says “heyyy Jeremy”, and he asks her “is that octane 93 you’re wearin’?” He was a good, still somewhat up and coming driver with a lot of potential.
Anyway, I whispered to everybody, hey, that’s Jeremy Mayfield walking his dog! So they talked me into asking for a picture with him. I walked over and asked him, and he was really cool about it… was more than happy to take a picture, and even laughed when Stan awkwardly asked him if “that was octane 93 he was wearing”. For the longest time we told people about that story and what a nice guy he was and how it was cool that he didn’t mind us bothering him late the night before a race while he was trying to get his dog to go to the bathroom. You just aren’t going to get this kind of experience in any other sport. The drivers, especially these days, are all like this, though you probably wouldn’t see dale Jr. out in the infield walking a dog for fear of being mobbed by crazy fans. But in all our years at the track, I can only think of one driver who ever, ever rudely refused to give an autograph or even the time of day. I won’t name names… but he drove the #2 Miller car in the 90s and is an analyst for ESPN now (cough cough Rusty Wallace cough). The other 99% of them are usually more than willing and go out of their way to be with the fans.
Unfortunately, Jeremy’s career was cut short. He struggled in future seasons and was let go by ray Evernham. Then in 2009, NASCAR found him in violation of the sport’s substance abuse policy after a failed drug test. Not good publicity for the sport, especially since its athletes are known for being some of the most clean-cut people in sports. I don’t know where or when he went wrong, but we were all fans of Jeremy Mayfield after that night and its a shame he got off track... pun intended.
One of the best things about NASCAR is the access fans have to the drivers. Autographs are actually not that hard to get, except maybe from a few drivers. For a relatively small price, you can get access to the pit area, and if you know the right people you can even get into the garages where the teams work on the cars, and drivers are always walking right past you (thanks Aunt Dawn!). And in what other sport can you literally walk by the place where the athletes are spending the night? At Atlanta Motor Speedway, the drivers have motor homes in a fenced in area right in the middle of the infield. Every once in a while you can walk by the motor home lot and see a driver playing with his kids on the playground, getting interviewed on TV, or even standing by the fence signing autographs.
Pretty late one Saturday night while doing our traditional walk around the infield, we were passing by the driver’s motor home lot and saw a guy walking his dog on the grassy bank next to the fence. As we passed I realized it was Jeremy Mayfield, who at the time was driving for the great Ray Evernham (crew chief for Jeff Gordon when Jeff Gordon became “Jeff Gordon”) in the #19 Dodge Dealers Dodge. He was in a funny Dodge commercial at the time where a good looking girl is getting ready for a date, walks out the door and jumps in Jeremy’s racecar and says “heyyy Jeremy”, and he asks her “is that octane 93 you’re wearin’?” He was a good, still somewhat up and coming driver with a lot of potential.
Anyway, I whispered to everybody, hey, that’s Jeremy Mayfield walking his dog! So they talked me into asking for a picture with him. I walked over and asked him, and he was really cool about it… was more than happy to take a picture, and even laughed when Stan awkwardly asked him if “that was octane 93 he was wearing”. For the longest time we told people about that story and what a nice guy he was and how it was cool that he didn’t mind us bothering him late the night before a race while he was trying to get his dog to go to the bathroom. You just aren’t going to get this kind of experience in any other sport. The drivers, especially these days, are all like this, though you probably wouldn’t see dale Jr. out in the infield walking a dog for fear of being mobbed by crazy fans. But in all our years at the track, I can only think of one driver who ever, ever rudely refused to give an autograph or even the time of day. I won’t name names… but he drove the #2 Miller car in the 90s and is an analyst for ESPN now (cough cough Rusty Wallace cough). The other 99% of them are usually more than willing and go out of their way to be with the fans.
Unfortunately, Jeremy’s career was cut short. He struggled in future seasons and was let go by ray Evernham. Then in 2009, NASCAR found him in violation of the sport’s substance abuse policy after a failed drug test. Not good publicity for the sport, especially since its athletes are known for being some of the most clean-cut people in sports. I don’t know where or when he went wrong, but we were all fans of Jeremy Mayfield after that night and its a shame he got off track... pun intended.
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