Mayfield, Vickers Miss Daytona 500
Jeremy Mayfield and Brian Vickers Sent Home For Daytona 500
Jeremy Mayfield and Brian Vickers were expected to be two of Toyota's top guns in 2007, but neither driver will lineup on Sunday's Daytona 500 starting grid.
Jeremy Mayfield, driving for Bill Davis Racing, was one of the quicker Toyota drivers throughout Daytona 500 practice, however, his qualifying effort was substandard, which meant that he had to race his way into the race in the first of the Gatorade Duel 150 races. Mayfield was running respectably, and may have been able to race his way in, but he slapped the outside wall while trying to evade a possible accident.
Mayfield gallantly rallied back to 15th place finish. In fact, all Mayfield needed was for Sterling Marlin to finish in one of the transfer spots in the second Gatorade Duel 150, but a late race shuffle kicked Marlin behind his teammate Joe Nemechek and Cinderella story Mike Wallace. Mayfield will head home and miss his first Daytona 500 since joining the NASCAR circuit full-time in 1994.
Car owner Bill Davis was overtly dissatisfied with the results, "And then [we] didn't do our jobs on Sunday and get the time that we worked all winter to have. ... That obviously was the first mistake, [and] then [we] came down here and didn't have a good enough driving car to race our way in."
Also leaving the track disgusted was Toyota Camry counterpart Brian Vickers. Vickers had won his first NASCAR Nextel cup race at Talladega just three months earlier before leaving Hendrick Motorsports for the upstart Red Bull Racing. And despite running in the top ten and fifteen for most of the second Gatorade Duel 150, a cut tire sent Vickers into the wall, and ultimately on the road back to North Carolina.
"Obviously it is a disappointing but we did our best," Vickers said. "We will go get them at California. When you blow a tire, you blow a tire."
To make matters worse for Red Bull Racing and Toyota, rookie driver A.J. Allmendinger will join Vickers on the bench on Sunday afternoon after Robby Gordon came down on him, forcing the contact between the two former open-wheel drivers.
"I don't know if you really put fault on that or what, but I just feel bad for the whole team because they deserve to have a car in the 500," Allmendinger said.
Other notable drivers that will be watching the Daytona 500 from their living rooms are Dale Earnhardt, Inc. rookie driver Paul Menard, veteran driver Ward Burton, 1988 champion Bill Elliott, 'the shy one' Kenny Wallace, and 72-year old James Hylton.
All the while, six drivers and teams that were tagged with cheating penalties will crank their motors at Daytona on Sunday afternoon. That is what has to smart the most.
