Tough Time in Texas

-In Spite of Handling Woes, Mayfield, No. 66 Team Persevere to Finish 22nd-

FT. WORTH, TX (Nov. 4, 2007) – Jeremy Mayfield and the No. 66 Best Buy Racing team posted a 22nd-place finish at Texas Motor Speedway on Sunday, two laps down to race winner Jimmie Johnson.

“We eventually got the car handling better than it was in the early going, but we were already a couple of laps down by that point,” Mayfield said. “We’re still working to dial things in, and I really think we’re making some big strides in a short period of time, but it’s not going to come overnight. We’ll be patient and head to Phoenix and continue to try and improve every week.”

Starting from the 36th position, Mayfield fought a loose handling condition on his Best Buy Chevrolet in the early going, resulting in slower lap times than the leaders. On the team’s first pit stop, crew chief Harold Holly called for a two-tire pit stop to help the team gain track position, which moved Mayfield all the up to 24th position on the lap 17 restart.

By lap 26, Mayfield had dropped back to the 29th position, telling Holly the car had a tight handling condition off of Turn 2, but that he was still sliding the back end of the car elsewhere on the track.

A few laps later, a caution flag allowed Mayfield to pit for four tires, fuel and a chassis adjustment, and he returned to the race in 34th position.

At the tail end of the long green flag run that followed, Mayfield moved up as high as the fourth position when the leaders began making their pit stops. On lap 91, it was the No. 66 team’s turn, with the crew making a four-tire pit stop, adding fuel and making a chassis adjustment to the Best Buy machine.

Shortly after Mayfield returned to the track, he went one lap down to the leaders, telling Holly the car was “tight on throttle,” meaning that every time Mayfield mashed the gas pedal, the car did not want to turn.

On every pit stop, Holly called for additional tire pressure and chassis adjustments to help improve the car’s handling. While Mayfield’s feedback indicated the changes were improving the car’s handling, the improvements were not substantial enough to allow Mayfield to get back on the lead lap.

By lap 204, Mayfield was being shown two laps down to the frontrunners, and he indicated the car was still “sliding the nose,” suggesting a tight handling condition.

For the remainder of the event, Mayfield’s track position fluctuated between the 24th and 28th positions in the field, as his Best Buy Chevrolet continued to exhibit tight handling characteristics.

On the final pit stop, quick work by the Best Buy pit crew helped Mayfield gain several positions on pit road, and the No. 66 team held on to finish 22nd.

Jimmie Johnson scored an impressive ninth win of the 2007 season, battling side-by-side with Matt Kenseth for several laps before Johnson was able to complete the pass and pull away for the victory.

While Johnson (No. 48 Lowe’s Chevrolet) crossed the finish line first, followed by Kenseth (No. 17 DeWalt Ford), Martin Truex, Jr. (No. 1 Bass Pro Shops Chevrolet) was third, while Kyle Busch (No. 5 Kellogg’s/CARQUEST Chevrolet) and Ryan Newman (No. 12 Alltel Dodge) rounded out the top-five.

Johnson’s win gives him the lead among the 12 drivers in the Chase for the Championship, while Jeff Gordon (No. 24 DuPont Chevrolet), who finished seventh in the event, is now 30 points back. Third place in the standings belongs to Clint Bowyer (No. 07 Jack Daniel’s Chevy), who is being shown 181 points back from Johnson, while Kyle Busch (-339 points) and Carl Edwards (-357 points) round out the top-five.

The series now heads further west to Phoenix International Raceway (PIR) where the No. 66 team found success earlier this season. In the April event there, the Best Buy crew scored a 14th-place starting spot and a sixth-place finish in the Car of Tomorrow, marking the strongest qualifying effort and finish at that track by a Haas CNC Racing entry since the team’s inception.

The 312-lap, 500-kilometer NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series race airs live from PIR on Sunday, November 11, beginning at 3 p.m. EST on ABC and MRN Radio affiliates.