When some of NASCAR’s biggest stars have driven your cars, it’s only natural to land in the spotlight of controversy. Besides, Richard Childress has seen it all, anyway. From making his debut at the inaugural Talladega 500 to fielding a historically successful race team that proudly boasts 14 championships across the top 3 National Touring Series, he has the accolades to show for it.

RC’s tenacity runs deep. If there’s one thing his drivers won’t do, it’s let themselves ever be an easy pass. And the average fan could never imagine the horror of finding a fast RCR car ‘rattling their cage’ at a place like Talladega or Pocono. However, either phenomenon has become far less common in the present 

But before anyone else could ‘out-rattle’ an RCR driver, Jeremy Mayfield did so to the king of all ‘cage-rattlers,’ Dale Earnhardt himself. The NASCAR history books have a special place for that moment. And things like that ‘just make it more fun’ for the stock car romantic in Richard Childress.

The Jeremy Mayfield ‘rattle’ that shocked Dale Earnhardt

The Intimidator—some call it the greatest marketing gimmick ever pulled in the sport; others believe there couldn’t be a more apt nickname to associate with Dale Earnhardt. Very few drivers escaped the black #3 car’s scare tactics at the height of its fame. But even fewer dared to return the favor to the “Man in Black.”

Jeremy Mayfield has done both in his 17-year-long memorable Cup Series career. Arguably, one of the sport’s most controversial figures, the Kentucky native won five races in that time, for names like Roger Penske & Ray Evernham. But history remembers Jeremy Mayfield’s fall from grace in 2009 when a series of events got him mysteriously suspended for a failed drug test. Regardless, he is one of the most interesting characters in NASCAR.

From Dale Earnhardt to Kevin Harvick and now Kyle Busch, Richard Childress has always had a knack for working with colorful characters. Some fans can’t help but imagine how Mayfield would’ve fared in a full-time RCR seat. However, he made quite the impression on Richard Childress when he went toe-to-toe with Dale Earnhardt in Pocono 24 years ago. 

Talking to Kevin Harvick on the Oct 3. episode of the Happy Hour podcast, Richard Childress reminisced about how ‘controversial’ NASCAR could get back in the day. As The Closer questioned his former car owner, “I always thought that you enjoyed that part of it… Is that the case?” To the amusement of many, Childress swiftly replied, “I lived off of that. That’s why I loved it.” And to emphasize himself, the 79-year-old team owner lent out a story.“Earnhardt. I never will forget when Jeremy Mayfield pushed him out of the way at Pocono, and he’s screaming on the radio. Was going to win the race, and [Mayfield] knocked him out of the tunnel.”

In June 2000, Jeremy Mayfield entered Pocono with a win in his bag, and two consecutive DNFs in the last two weeks. His performance levels had dipped since his breakout year in 1998, and Roger Penske was about to take over the #12 team operations in a few months, leaving part-owner Michael Kranefuss behind. So, to keep his seat the following season, Mayfield needed better performances to come through sooner than later. He found his opportunity in Pocono, where he started in 22nd. But with the white flag in the air at the end of the second-last lap of the race, Mayfield was racing on the bumper of the race leader, Dale Earnhardt.

As Mayfield attempted to pass, Earnhardt blocked him a few times. But coming off Turn 3, the #12 car made an audacious move. Mayfield put the nose of his car to Earnhardt’s rear and pushed him out of the way. The #3 car moved up the racetrack, losing momentum, allowing Mayfield the victory. Jeremy Mayfield had just “rattled” Earnhardt’s cage, as he mentioned in his post-win interview. Earnhardt, who finished 4th, reminded Mayfield “he was Number 1” with a flipping bird on the cooldown lap. It was a moment for the ages.

With his best Dale Earnhardt impression, Childress mimicked how The Intimidator had cautioned him from acting out over the radio in the thick of things: “Richard. Richard. Don’t you go over there. Don’t you go over there.” And in his own words, Childress added, emotions like that “just made it more fun back then. Today if you look at somebody wrong, you’ll get fined, almost.” Sure, RCR knows a thing or two about fines and flaring frustrations. But at the end of that Pocono 500, there were none. Dale Earnhardt had forgiven Jeremy Mayfield for his bump-and-run, deeming it a racing incident and nothing else.

Those golden days of NASCAR racing are unlikely to return. In 2024, the sport has become more competitive than ever, with the lines between respect and racing crossed often by the current crop of drivers. And when Jeremy Mayfield appeared on Dale Jr’s podcast a couple of years ago, he made that perfectly clear.

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“When I said Earnhardt approved… I meant that because him and Dave Marcis, a couple of guys, would always mess with you… And if you stood your ground with them, you know. you didn’t lose it when he got by. Or you know nothing happened. Then you were accepted, I felt like.” – Jeremy Mayfield reminisced about his NASCAR upbringing with Dale Earnhardt Jr on the June 9, 2022, episode of the Download. For that matter, Mayfield got his big break in the sport at a time when legends like Richard Petty were hanging up their racing helmets, and newer stars like Jeff Gordon and Tony Stewart were making a grand entry. 

Now, 55 years of age, Mayfield also had the rare opportunity to get to know the Intimidator in a way very few do before the latter’s untimely demise changed NASCAR forever on February 18, 2001. His absence rings loud to this day, but in Jeremy Mayfield’s memory, there is one moment he will never forget. After the win at Pocono and the “rattle his cage” comments, Mayfield anticipated nothing less than full-blown retaliation from Earnhardt at Sonoma the following week. In his own words, “I’m thinking you know he’s gonna be pissed to start with…”

“But when I ran into him at the driver’s introduction (next week)… He’s got a big smile on his face. You know, he grabs me in the headlock, and you know how he does this little deal on my head,” remembered Mayfield. “And I thought, ‘Hell, I thought you was gonna be madder than that, you know?’ He said, ‘I wasn’t mad at you man… That’s part of it.’ Just so cool about it and he goes, ‘Bud, it’s one thing that pissed me off,’ he said. ‘All that shit you said after the race is what pissed me off ‘

And understandably so. That catchphrase became famous after Dale Earnhardt made a similar move to Mayfield’s a year ago at the 1999 Bristol Night Race. Earnhardt had taken out Terry Labonte on the last lap for the win under the lights. In his post-race address, he had said of Labonte, ‘Didn’t mean to really turn him around. Meant to rattle his cage though.” Labonte had cheekily responded to this statement, saying, “Have you ever heard him say he means to spin anybody out?” Such was the drama that often followed Dale Earnhardt, the man who made a name for himself, racing rivals hard with a no-nonsense attitude, winning the hearts of countless admirers.

These days, stakeholders must choose their words and actions wisely, given NASCAR’s heightened vigilance for trouble-making incidents. Take the example of Kyle Busch’s throwdown with Ricky Stenhouse Jr at North Wilkesboro. The $75K in fines Stenhouse Jr and crew had to pay in fines to NASCAR sums up the gravity of the proceedings. And to see a high-level Cup Series driver throw hands at another is never a pretty sight in the name of pure professionalism.

In a much more recent incident, Austin Dillon got penalized for that classic Bristol bump-and-run on Joey Logano, which prompted a two-week suspension for his spotter, Derek Kneeland, because of his directive to “wreck” the #22. The lesson to gather from all this is, that NASCAR does not take these kinds of infractions lightly anymore with how fast the sport is growing.

Regardless, a few would still argue that Jeremy Mayfield was one of the last people to give The Intimidator a taste of his own medicine. But that’s a story for another day.