Casey Mears
MEARS (ON HIS RELATIONSHIP WITH HIS MOTHER, CAROL.): “My mom is a great lady. She has been there for me and my racing career since the beginning. She still does a lot for me and my company, Casey Mears Inc. She’s just always there and is honestly one of the best people I know.
“It’s cool what Darlington does for all of the mothers on Mother’s Day weekend. I know that it gives my mom a good perspective of what I do each weekend with walking across the stage and waving to the fans—what I see and hear every race day. I know that every year she wears heels and every year she is so nervous and worried that she’s going to fall. She doesn’t really like the steps much.”
MEARS (ON HOW TESTING AT NASHVILLE SUPERSPEEDWAY WENT.): “Testing went really well for us at Nashville. We sorted through a bunch of setups, and I think what we found will really help us in the future. We focused on furthering our communication skills as a team as well. It was a very positive test. No pressure at all. I think it’s great, too, that Rick (Hendrick) was there to support us all.”
ALAN GUSTAFSON, CREW CHIEF, NO. 5 KELLOGG’S/CARQUEST CHEVROLET (ON HIS SOUTHERN 500 VICTORY WITH TERRY LABONTE.): “Being on that team back then, it felt like we had struggled for years to be performing like we should have. We worked hard. Every person on that team worked hard. And that year, we kind of turned it all around. Terry (Labonte) was competing for wins, and we had a lot of top-fives and top-10s. It felt like we got back to where we belonged. Winning that race was just a culmination of everyone’s work and desire to be on top. The Southern 500 is so prestigious in itself, but that was the last one on Labor Day weekend, and it was the last win in Terry’s storied career. It was just really special. I’ve never seen all of the competitors react more positively to someone winning as they did to Terry that day. It was incredible.”
GUSTAFSON (ON HOW THE NEW TRACK SURFACE WILL AFFECT THE RACE.): “The track is going to be really, really smooth now. We’re actually going from one extreme to the other—from extremely rough and hard on tires to incredibly smooth with a lot of grip. It’s a huge transition for everyone. There’s not going to be a lot of tire strategy anymore. We used to come in for new tires after four or five laps. That’s just not going to happen anymore. I’m not a driver, but just from what I’ve seen, I think the track will be easier to drive. There are no more bumps. And the surface isn’t as abrasive. It’s not going to be as hard to get ahold of the track.”
GUSTAFSON (ON HIS MOTHER, RITA.): “My mother is a wonderful woman. She has always supported me, and I can honestly say she is my No. 1 fan. I’m still kind of baffled by how big of a deal everything with my job still is to her. After all of these years, she’s still impressed by NASCAR and what I do in it.”
GUSTAFSON (ON THE NASHVILLE TEST.): “The test went really well. It was good to be on track. We tried a lot of new things that we’ve developed since the start of the year. It was nice. We’re bringing the car from the test to Darlington so I guess that says how much faith we have in what we learned. We made some real gains. These new cars are kind of boxed in, and it’s tough to work around all that. But I do feel like we definitely made some gains.”
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