26th in points. Mayfield formally joined the Kranefuss-Haas team in 1997. He had eight top tens, including two fifth-place runs, and finished a then career-high 13th place in points. After the season, Carl Haas' interests in the team were sold to Penske Racing South, and the team's identity was changed, with a new number (No. 12). Mayfield took the points lead early in the season, and won his first career race at the Pocono 500. At the end of the season, he ranked a career best seventh in the point standings, with 1 win, 12 top five finishes, 16 top 10 finishes, and a pole. In 1999, he dropped four spots in the standings, despite twelve top-tens. In 2000, he won four poles and two races. Mayfield's 3rd Cup series win and his 2nd of 2000 is probably the most famous of all his wins, as he bumped Dale Earnhardt out of the lead in the last turn and then used Earnhardt's famous "Rattle his cage" line against Earnhardt in victory lane. One of the poles, however, was at the DieHard 500, and the car was found to have violated the rules and penalties resulted in the team earning -25 points from the race (his 126 points, earned by finishing 14th and leading a lap, were offset by the 151-point penalty NASCAR handed down). Later, while practicing for the Brickyard 400, he crashed hard into the wall. He suffered a concussion and was forced to miss the next two races. He finished 24th in points that season as a result of also having eleven DNFs (including six in a row). He began 2001 with two consecutive third-place finishes, but was released after the Protection One 400. Rumors circulated around the garage that he had burned bridges with Roger Penske in order to sign a new deal with Ray Evernham's team. Rusty Wallace added the next year, that he did not see head to head with Jeremy Mayfield as teammates and that they feuded several times. He later provided Jeremy Mayfield with a driving contract in Wallace's lower-tier team in 2005 as a sign of his regret. In 2002, Mayfield signed to Evernham Motorsports, replacing Casey Atwood. In his first year, Mayfield had four top-tens and finished 26th in points. He improved in 2003, winning the pole at the Aaron's 499 and posting 12 top-tens, finishing nineteenth in points. In 2004,