NASCAR round-up: Mayfield gets new contract

Mayfield took two race wins and four poles during the 2000 season, but also recorded 10 DNFs during an erratic season that also saw the team fined US$50,000 and docked 151 points for fuel irregularities at Talladega.

Mayfield was rumoured to be on the way out when his mentor Michael Kranefuss was bought out of the team last autumn by Penske. Kranefuss had founded Kranefuss-Haas Racing with Champ Car big-hitter Carl Haas, but Haas's share was bought by Penske in 1996 and the team aligned with Rusty Wallace's existing Penske South operation.

Speaking on Mayfield's re-signing, Penske Racing president Walt Czarnecki said: "Penske Racing and Jeremy Mayfield together is the best thing for both of us, and a definite winning combination."

NASCAR's ditching of second round qualifying has allowed Rockingham to condense its Dura-Lube 400 race weekend in February into a two-day meeting for Winston Cup teams. Friday has been scrubbed from the timetable, but the Winston Cup drivers will now practice on Saturday morning at 07:45(!) and qualify at 10:40. Rockingham is an hour's drive from most Cup teams' bases in the Charlotte/Moorsville, North Carolina area, giving the crews a precious extra day off from the2001 calendar's 38-weekend slog.

Winston Cup veteran Ted Musgrave, who had a starting slot, but no car for the non-points, season-opening Budweiser Shootout at Daytona on February 10, will now drive Junie Donlavey's Hills Bros Coffee Ford Taurus in the big-money race for 2000 pole-winners. Musgrave qualified for the race by being picked out of a hat containing all last year's second round fastest qualifiers who had failed to take a pole. The Wisconsin man, who is yet to win a Winston Cup race, was fastest in second round qualifying at Pocono, where he drove for Felix Sabates Racing following the death of Kenny Irwin. Ironically, Derrick Cope, the regular driver of Donlavey's Ford, had also taken a fastest second round time, but stayed in the hat...