Wallace and Mayfield are the perfect match

Monday, March 2, 1998 | 6:01 a.m.

The new pairing of drivers Rusty Wallace and Jeremy Mayfield is paying big dividends not only for team owner Roger Penske, but the drivers as well.

For the second time in three races, Wallace and Mayfield finished in the top five. Wallace, in the No. 2 Miller Lite Ford Taurus, took third in Sunday's Las Vegas 400. Mayfield, in the No. 12 Mobil 1 Ford Taurus, was fifth. Two weeks ago in the season-opening Daytona 500, Mayfield was third and Wallace fifth.

"I'm just real happy with this team," Wallace said. "Jeremy and I worked so well together; it seems like whatever he likes, I like and whatever I like, he likes.

"We've got a team that we can bounce things off of, and that's a big help. If I had a teammate sitting over there with an identical car and I've got a thousand-pound right front spring and he's got a 1,600, I'd be concerned. But lately, we've been running the same stuff so we're able to bounce chassis setups off each other."

Mayfield, who joined Wallace just prior to the Daytona 500, said he can't believe his good fortune to have a teammate like Wallace.

"This is my dream come true to be with a team like this," Mayfield said. "To be associated with Roger Penske, Michael Kranefuss and Rusty Wallace ... is awesome. I look for good things in the future for both teams here."

Wallace, who started 10th, led three times in the race for 40 laps before falling off the pace in the final 70 laps.

"The car faded at the end," Wallace said. "It was a real good car in the middle and we led a lot of laps. The set of tires before the last set made the car loose and (the set we finished on) was tight.

"We've been in the top five all three races and I'm liking it."

Mayfield made the most impressive run of the afternoon after starting the 267-lap event in 32nd position.

"Man, we started (32nd) and got all the way up there to the top five and had a little miscue in the pits," Mayfield said. "We left some lug nuts loose and we had to come in and tighten those up. That put us back about 30th again and we worked our way all the way back up to the front again."

Mayfield's pit stop wasn't the only problem he encountered. His radio went out early in the race and he could not communicate with his crew chief, Paul Andrews.

"I could hear them, but they couldn't hear me," Mayfield said. "They could hear me key my button and they'd ask me questions, tight or loose, and I'd key the button. We had a lot of things thrown at us today and we just kept fighting back."

Mayfield said that with some of the three-wide racing that was going on -- especially back in the pack -- it was important to keep his cool when his radio went out.

"If you panic, you'll wreck here, I'll tell you that," Mayfield said. "Three wide, four wide, I just had to be patient all day. I knew I had a good car and I just had to be there at the end; I just had to keep running."

Wallace increased his lead in the series points standings to 56 over Dale Earnhardt while Mayfield moved up a spot to third, three points behind the Daytona 500 winner. Jimmy Spencer and Bill Elliott round out the top five after three races.