Casey Mears has competed in 10 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races at Pocono Raceway, earning one top-five finish and three top-10s.Mears posted his career-best Pocono result of fourth in June 2007 and followed that with a 10th-place finish there in August. At Pocono, Mears also won back-to-back ARCA races in July 2003, during his Sprint Cup rookie season.
FIRST POLE: Mears earned his first career Sprint Cup pole position at Pocono Raceway in August 2004 and led 17 laps before finishing 18th. The following week, Mears earned his second career pole at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
NO. 5 TEAM AT POCONO: Under the direction of crew chief Alan Gustafson, the Kellogg’s/CARQUEST team has earned one top-five finish and two top-10s in six starts at the tricky Pocono triangle in Long Pond, Pa. The No. 5 Chevy led two laps at the track before finishing 12th last August. The team has started in the top 10 in its last four races at Pocono.
HENDRICK TOP 10: In 48 races at Pocono Raceway, Hendrick drivers have recorded at least one top-10 finish in all but four events. Overall, Hendrick Motorsports drivers have combined for 11 wins, 45 top-five finishes and 76 top-10s at the track.
CHASSIS 497: Following last week’s test session at Pocono Raceway, Gustafson has chosen Hendrick Motorsports Chassis No. 5-497 for Sunday’s race. Chassis 5-497 raced in the top 15 for much of the Sprint Cup event at Darlington (S.C.) Raceway earlier this year before a broken header cut the Chevy’s left-front tire, leaving the team with a 35th-place finish.
STILL TESTING: The Kellogg’s/CARQUEST team tested its road course package at Virginia International Raceway on Tuesday. The No. 5 Chevy crew has tested five times in the past six weeks. The tracks tested: Nashville (Tenn.) Superspeedway, Lowe’s Motor Speedway, Pocono, VIR and Milwaukee.
QUOTES
CASEY MEARS, DRIVER, NO. 5 KELLOGG’S/CARQUEST CHEVROLET (ON PREPARING FOR POCONO.): “The biggest part of preparing for Pocono is remembering you’re racing at Pocono and not Bristol (LAUGHS). It’s such a different racetrack than any other one we race on. I love this place, though. From the first time I raced at Pocono it just agreed with me and my driving style.”
MEARS (ON WHAT PART OF THE TRACK IS MOST IMPORTANT TO BE GOOD ON.): “Well, you want to be good everywhere, but that’s very tough to do at Pocono. If I had to choose one place to be better at it would have to be Turn 3. On Turn 1, a driver can manhandle his way through it. The tunnel turn can be improved throughout the race. But Turn 3 leads into a long straightaway. If you mess up there, you lose a lot of time and possible positions.”
MEARS (ON HOW THE POCONO TEST WENT.): “Our test went really well. We had one car that was good right off the truck, and one that was just not so good. So, naturally we chose the good one, Chassis No. 5-497, for the race this weekend. It’s the same car we raced at Darlington, and it was really good there, too. I’m excited to get back to the track.”
ALAN GUSTAFSON, CREW CHIEF, NO. 5 KELLOGG’S/CARQUEST CHEVROLET (ON SETTING A CAR’S HANDLING FOR A TRIANGULAR TRACK.): “At Pocono, we have to take each corner individually. It’s an interesting challenge. As you adjust the car to each corner to make it good there, you’ll sacrifice the handling in another corner. The object is to get a high percentage of gain in two corners versus a low percentage loss in the other. Turns 1 and 3 are similar, but Turn 2—the tunnel turn—is the really demanding one.”
GUSTAFSON (ON HOW THE IMPALA SS WILL HANDLE AT POCONO.): “I think the new car will be very hard on brakes. Since the transmission and gear change rule a few years ago, Pocono has been harder on brakes anyhow. But the Impala SS is even harder. The driver can’t enter or turn through the corner as fast. You really have to slow these cars down.”
GUSTAFSON (ON WHY NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES CREW CHIEFS CHOSE TO TEST AT POCONO.): “NASCAR handed out a flier last year asking the crew chiefs where they wanted to test in 2008, and they scheduled the tracks that were the most picked. The majority of us picked Pocono. It’s such a wildly different racetrack. Testing here won’t help a team for any other track, but there’s no other track that will prepare a team for Pocono either. We definitely needed to test here.”
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