Casey Mears

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Casey James Mears

Born:	March 12, 1978 (age 30)
Birthplace:	Bakersfield, California
Achievements:	—
Awards:	2006 24 Hours of Daytona overall co-winner 2007 Coca-Cola 600 winner
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Statistics
Car #, Team	5 - Hendrick Motorsports
2007 Sprint Cup Position:	15th
Best Cup Position:	14th - 2006 (NEXTEL Cup)
First Race:	2003 Daytona 500 (Daytona)
First Win:	2007 Coca-Cola 600 (Lowe's)
Last Win:	2007 Coca-Cola 600 (Lowe's)
Wins	Top Tens	Poles
1	37	3
NASCAR Nationwide Series Statistics
2007 NNS Position:	15th
Best NNS Position:	15th - 2007 (Busch Series)
First Race:	2001 GNC Live Well 300 (Homestead)
First Win:	2006 USG Durock 300 (Chicagoland)
Last Win:	2006 USG Durock 300 (Chicagoland)
Wins	Top Tens	Poles
1	31	4
Statistics current as of October 29, 2007.

Casey James Mears (born March 12, 1978 in Bakersfield, California) is the driver of the #5 Kellogg's/CARQUEST Chevrolet Impala SS in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series for Hendrick Motorsports. He is the nephew of four time Indianapolis 500 winner Rick Mears and the son of Indy and off-road veteran Roger Mears.

Contents 1 Open wheel racing 2 NASCAR 3 2008 4 GrandAm 5 Personal 6 Sprint Cup Statistics 7 Busch Series Statistics 8 References 9 External links

[edit] Open wheel racing

After racing in go-karts for a season in 1991, Mears began competing in the SuperLites Off-Road Series in 1992 where he posted several top-three finishes.

In 1994, he finished third in the Jim Russell USAC Triple Crown Championship, with a win at Mesa Marin Raceway.

In 1995, Mears captured the Jim Russell USAC Triple Crown Championship.

In 1996 he made his Indy Lights Championship Series debut at the Cleveland Grand Prix and finished eighth.

In 1997, Mears competed full-time in the Indy Lights Championship Series and in 1999 he finished second in the points championship, losing by just 14 points. He was also just the fourth driver in Indy Lights Series history to complete every lap in a single season. Mears continued to compete in the Indy Lights Series in 2000 and won his first race at the Grand Prix of Houston in October.

After testing Indy Cars for multiple teams in 2000, Mears was offered a chance to drive a third entry for Team Rahal at California Speedway in October. After qualifying 15th and leading 10 laps, Mears posted a career-best fourth finish in his CART Series debut.

Mears ran three IRL events at the start of the 2001 season before eventually finishing up the season by filling in for injured ChampCar driver Alex Zanardi, posting one top-10 finish in four starts.

Mears has 5 CART starts, with one top-5 finish. He has 3 IRL starts, with no top-5 finishes.

[edit] NASCAR

Mears made his NASCAR debut in the Busch Series in 2001 at Homestead-Miami Speedway, driving the 66 car for Cicci-Welliver Racing. He started 21st and finished 28th.

When the team was sold to Wayne Jesel the next season, Mears drove for them full-time, finishing 21st in points with two top-ten finishes.

To the surprise of many, he was selected by Chip Ganassi Racing to drive the #41 Target Dodge in 2003. In his rookie season, he finished 35th after failing to finish in the top-ten in any race.

He drove the car for two additional seasons, and won two poles in 2004.

During the 2005 season, it was announced Mears would move to a separate car for Chip Ganassi with Home123 sponsorship, with the #41 to be piloted by Reed Sorenson. The Home123 sponsorship fell through and he instead moved to the #42 Texaco/Havoline Dodge for Ganassi, replacing the departing Jamie McMurray.

On June 9, 2006 Mears announced that he was leaving Chip Ganassi Racing at the end of the season to join Hendrick Motorsports for the 2007 season, to replace the departing Brian Vickers. On July 8, he finally won his first NASCAR race, a Busch Series race at Chicagoland Speedway, coasting to the finish after running out of fuel.

For the 2007 season, Mears assumed driving duties for the #25 Hendrick car, with co-primary sponsorship from the Army National Guard and GMAC. On May 27 he and crew chief Darian Grubb won the Coca Cola 600 at Charlotte for their first career Nextel Cup victory. Once again, Mears obtained the win with a fuel gamble, taking the lead with five laps remaining when most other lead lap cars stopped for fuel. Mears stretched his fuel to the finish, and ran out of fuel moments after his first checkered flag.

[edit] 2008

In 2008 Mears moved to the Alan Gustafson-led No. 5 Kellogg's/CARQUESTChevrolet Impala formerly driven by Kyle Busch.

On February 17, 2008, Mears placed 35th in the Daytona 500 after an accident on lap 195, when Mears switched lanes too late and was hit by Tony Stewart. Stewart went on to finish 3rd.

On February 24, 2008, Mears placed 42nd in the Auto Club 500 in Fontana, CA after an accident on lap 21 where Mears slid over a patch of water remaining from an earlier rain storm. He then slid into the wall, was hit by teammate Dale Earnhardt Jr., and then by Sam Hornish Jr who rolled the Kellogg's/CARQUEST car over. It was the the first Car of Tomorrow to flip onto its roof. Mears car came to rest on the passenger side, and he was able to escape without injury. According to Mears, water seeping through a crack in Turn 2 definitely caused him to get loose. He said he hit water a couple of times before finally spinning out. The accident led to a red flag stop lasting one hour and four minutes to allow NASCAR to further dry the track surface.

On March 2, 2008, Mears placed 13th in the UAW-Dodge 400 in Las Vegas, NV. After running much of the race a lap down, Mears got the Free Pass after a caution on lap 233. After the race went back green on lap 236, Mears improved his position from 22nd to 13th in the final 30 laps of the race.

On March 30th, 2008, Mears posted his 1st top 10 of the 2008 season, by finishing 7th at the 2008 Goody's Cool Orange 500. The 7th place finish helped Mears in the Top 35 battle, Mears was 33rd in owner points going to Martinsville, he is currently 29th in owner points.

On May 25th, 2008, Mears was privileged to race the 500th chassis to have been manufactured by Hendrick Motorsports in 24 years. The chassis finished 29th in the running of the Coca-Cola 600 at Lowe's Motor Speedway in Concord, North Carolina.

[edit] GrandAm

Mears added arguably the most impressive win to his resume on January 29, 2006 when he, Scott Dixon, and Dan Wheldon teamed up to win the 44th annual Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona for Chip Ganassi racing. They set a race record for the Daytona Prototype category, running 723 laps in 24 hours to score the win. Mears became the first ever full-time NASCAR driver to win the Rolex 24.

[edit] Personal

Trivia sections are discouraged under Wikipedia guidelines. The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones.

• Mears is from a very successful crop of drivers hailing from California including fellow Bakersfield native Kevin Harvick, Robby Gordon from Cerritos, David Gilliland from Riverside, Jeff Gordon from Vallejo and Jimmie Johnson from El Cajon.

• Was former Houston Texans and currently Carolina Panthers quarterback David Carr's high school teammate on the football team. Mears played running back at Stockdale High School.

• His favorite food is Italian.

• His favorite movie is Tombstone.

• Mears recently announced that he's expecting his first child with girlfriend Trisha Grablander, no word on the due date just yet. The baby will be a girl.^[1]

[edit] Sprint Cup Statistics

Year	Starts	Wins	Top Fives	Top Tens	Poles	Rank
2003	36	0	0	0	0	35th
2004	36	0	1	9	2	22nd
2005	36	0	3	9	0	22nd
2006	36	0	2	8	0	14th
2007	36	1	5	10	1	15th
2008	12	0	0	2	0	28th
Totals	192	1	11	38	3	-

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position)