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JEREMY MAYFIELD – NEXTEL OPEN
LOWE’S MOTOR SPEEDWAY
CONCORD, N.C. (May 19, 2007) – Jeremy Mayfield qualified the 360 OTC Toyota in the 26th spot for the Nextel Open Saturday evening at Lowe’s Motor Speedway, and he drove his Camry to a solid eighth-place finish.
With a field consisting of previous race winners, the Nextel All-Star Challenge awards no points, but teams look forward to the chance to compete for the $1 million winner’s
The qualifying procedure for the All-Star Challenge required a four-tire pit stop and three laps around the 1.5-mile oval, but the starting lineup for the Nextel Open was determined by a normal two-lap qualifying run. Mayfield was the second of 32 competitors to take to the track for Nextel Open qualifying Friday
evening. As soon as he took the green flag, he realized that the handling of his Camry was extremely loose. His speed of 180.644 mph was a bit of a disappointment for the team, but Mayfield did a good job of bringing the ill-handling car back in one piece, a better result than several other competitors had during their qualifying runs. Mayfield was
set to start the event in the 26th position.
Mayfield took the green flag for the start of the event and avoided a first-lap incident in the front of the field that took six cars out of contention for the win. Mayfield communicated to his crew that everything was fine with the car, and when the green flag once again waved for the restart, the No. 36 Camry lined up
in 10th spot.
Mayfield continued to work his way to the front of the field, avoiding several accidents in front of him. By the end of the first 20-lap segment, Mayfield held the eighth spot and reported to Interim Crew Chief Tommy Baldwin that the car was good. The team opted not to make a pit stop before the start of the second
segment, and Mayfield lined up eighth for the second 20-lap sprint. Caution flags didn’t count in the final segment, and the field needed several attempts to get through the first lap of the second segment without incident. Mayfield moved into the top five early, but fell to eighth before all was said and done and was thus not able to transfer
into the All-Star event.
The Nextel Cup Series remains at Lowe’s Motor Speedway for the running of the longest race of the season, the Coca-Cola 600. Qualifying for the event will be held Thursday evening and Sunday evening’s race is scheduled for a 5:30 p.m. ET start. The race will be broadcast on FOX, PRN Radio and Sirius Satellite Radio.
360 OTC Racing Preview
- Lowe’s Motor Speedway
· This Week’s Toyota…The No. 36 Caterpillar Toyota Jeremy Mayfield is scheduled to drive in the event this weekend is chassis No. 97.
· Mayfield’s Open Stats…Mayfield has made 13 All-Star event starts on the 1.5-mile oval during his Cup Series career. He started and finished first in the 1998 and 2002 Open events, which enabled him to compete in the All-Star race those same years.
· All-Star Challenge Broadcast Schedule…Qualifying for Saturday’s event is scheduled to start at 6 p.m. ET Friday, May 18. The 60-lap event is scheduled to start at 7:30 p.m. ET Saturday, May 19, and will broadcast LIVE on Speed (TV), MRN (radio) and Sirius Satellite Radio.
"I’ve always enjoyed the All-Star races at Lowe’s Motor Speedway. It’s an exciting night for the fans and for the drivers and crews. It gives everyone the opportunity to relax a little bit and forget about everything that happened so far in the season and just go out and have a good time. You show up, you
qualify and everyone gets to race, so that will be great for this 360 OTC team. The only pressure is to go out and win and make it into the Challenge, which is what we intend to try to do.”
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