One month after winning the TD Banknorth 250, Jeremie Whorff will enter his first race in the heart of NASCAR country.

Whorff will compete in the Over the Mountain 150 on Sunday at Hickory Motor Speedway in North Carolina as part of the PASS South series.

“It’s an excellent opportunity for me,” Whorff said in a brief telephone conversation Wednesday from Charlotte, N.C. “It will give me a little bit more exposure. I definitely have my work cut out for me.”

To help make the transition easier, Whorff will team up with Jeremy Mayfield, who was fired from his ride with Ray Evernham two weeks ago.

Mayfield, who qualified for the past two Chase for the Nextel Cup championships, had struggled all season and was 36th in the standings when he was fired. The veteran of 14 seasons at the Nextel Cup level, Mayfield has five career victories.

Whorff Motorsports, which has teamed with Nextel Cup drivers for the last three TD Banknorth 250s, will supply the car Mayfield will race at Hickory.

“I just want to race,” Mayfield said to The Associated Press. “I’ll be at Bristol on Friday to appear on Trackside Live on SPEED Channel and make an announcement about my Cup career. Then, I’m heading over to Hickory Motor Speedway to have some fun and, hopefully, run real well in the PASS South Super Late Model race on Sunday.

“The Whorff Motorsports team is giving me a great car, and I’m even going to have my brand new Nextel Cup Series number on it for this weekend. I’m just real excited because Super Late Models are what I grew up with.”

Last month, Jeremie Whorff and his father, Bill Jr., finished 1-2 at the 250. The Whorffs, who had teamed with Nextel Cup champion Matt Kenseth in the 2004 and 2005 race, provided the car that Cup rookie J.J. Yeley drove.

Whorff, 22, an Oxford Plains Speedway regular who had been contemplating a move South to one of the touring series, arrived in Charlotte around noon Wednesday and toured several of the race shops in the area, he said.

While providing Mayfield with a car, Whorff is hoping to pick up some pointers from his teammate about the Hickory oval.

“He’s a great race car driver, and I’m pretty excited to get to work with him,” Whorff said in a statement on the PASS Web site. “It’s a pretty big deal for the crew to run down there with me and have a chance to communicate with Jeremy Mayfield.”

Five other Maine drivers have competed in PASS South races this year. Mike Rowe of Turner has won two of the six races and leads the points standings.


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