Saturday, August 05, 2000
Brickyard 400 notebook
Mayfield out today with concussion
By Tom Groeschen
The Cincinnati Enquirer
INDIANAPOLIS — Jeremy Mayfield will miss today's Brickyard 400 after being knocked unconscious in a practice crash Friday at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Mayfield, 31, suffered a moderate concussion, Speedway medical director Dr. Henry Bock said. Mayfield was admitted to Methodist Hospital and checked himself out in the afternoon.
Kyle Petty, who failed to qualify his car, will drive Mayfield's backup car today for the Penske-Kranefuss Racing team. Mayfield qualified fourth for the race, but under NASCAR rules, Petty must start last in the 43-car field.
Mayfield, from Owensboro, Ky., spun out in his No.12 Mobil One Ford and struck the third-turn concrete retaining wall. The left side and rear of his car were heavily damaged.
It took track safety workers nearly 10 minutes to remove Mayfield from the car.
GORDON STRUGGLES: Jeff Gordon insists he is happy being just another driver these days. But starting 29th in the Brickyard 400 is going a bit too far, he said. Gordon has won two Brickyards and three poles but has never started this low.
“It's a surprise we didn't run better here,” he said. “We had a fairly good test here, but now we're kind of scratching our heads.”
Gordon is no longer the phenom who dominated NASCAR from 1995-99. He has two wins this year, 51 in his career, three Winston Cup season titles and more than $32 million in career winnings.
He celebrated his 29th birthday Friday.
“In a lot of ways, it's been a wonderful year, even though we haven't seen the results I'd like,” Gordon said. “When we went four years in a row battling for the championship, it drained me.”
The big reason for his relative decline is the departure of longtime crew chief Ray Evernham. Evernham left to become director of Winston Cup's new Dodge program, which will make its debut in 2001. Also, half of Gordon's pit crew jumped to Dale Jarrett's operation.
“I didn't expect to turn things around and start winning championships (immediately),” Gordon said. “We're still going through some growing pains.”
TOO LATE: Geoffrey Bodine set a NASCAR track record at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Friday's second-day qualifying but will start only 26th in today's race.
Bodine ran 181.072 mph, beating Ricky Rudd's Thursday record of 181.068. But the top 25 spots were locked in Thursday, when Bodine crashed dur ing his qualifying attempt.
Positions 26 through 36 were set Friday.
ENTER GANASSI: Chip Ganassi, whose CART team has won four straight titles, entered Winston Cup racing Friday after acquiring the majority interest in Team Sabco.
Ganassi said he will switch from Chevrolets to Dodges in 2001.
“If you have any competitive spirit, you can't ignore NASCAR Winston Cup racing,” he said.
The current drivers for Ganassi are two-time Daytona 500 winner Sterling Marlin and Ted Musgrave.
IROC: Despite winning the Indianapolis round of the International Race of Champions series for the third consecutive year, Mark Martin again failed to beat fellow Winston Cup star Dale Earnhardt for the championship.
In a near replay of last year's finale of the four-race all-star series, Martin led the most laps, won the race, earned the maximum 26 points — and came up just short of the title.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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