Casey Mears: NASCAR Sprint Cup Daytona Preview
Jul 01, 2008
STRONG SPEEDWEEKS: Casey Mears had the strongest Speedweeks of his career at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway in February. Mears followed a sixth-place finish in the Budweiser Shootout with a fourth-place effort in the first Gatorade Duel, putting the No. 5 Chevrolet ninth on the starting grid for the Daytona 500. Mears was running third with six laps left in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series event, but finished 35th after an accident.
NAIL-BITER: In July 2007, the No. 5 Chevy missed Victory Lane at Daytona by just .005 seconds. The team led 20 laps before crossing the finish line in second place. It was the second-closest margin of victory recorded by NASCAR since the implementation of electronic scoring in 1993.
HOTTER IN JULY: The No. 5 CARQUEST/Kellogg’s Chevrolet team has performed well recently during the 400-mile summer race at Daytona, recording two straight runner-up finishes. The No. 5 team took second in 2006 and 2007.
HOMETOWN CHIEF: Alan Gustafson, crew chief of the No. 5 CARQUEST/Kellogg’s Chevrolet, grew up in nearby Ormond Beach, Fla. Gustafson got his training at a young age, turning wrenches on go-karts driven by Casey Yunick, the grandson of legendary Smokey Yunick. One of Gustafson’s goals was achieved during the NASCAR Nationwide Series race last July when he coached the No. 5 Chevrolet to a win at his home track.
MEARS AT RESTRICTOR-PLATE TRACKS: In 22 restrictor-plate starts, Mears has earned one top-five finish and six top-10s. His career-best finish of second occurred in the 2006 Daytona 500. In his most recent restrictor-plate outing, Mears finished seventh at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway in April.
HENDRICK AT DAYTONA: In 49 races at Daytona, Hendrick Motorsports drivers have recorded 10 wins, 39 top-five finishes and 71 top-10s. Hendrick’s drivers have combined to lead 1,198 laps at the restrictor-plate track. Saturday evening’s event will mark team owner Rick Hendrick’s 50th career Sprint Cup race at Daytona International Speedway.
MEARS A YEAR AGO: In this race one year ago, Mears started 21st and led 11 laps before finishing 19th. Mears took the lead with 12 laps to go, but in the final laps was shuffled back to the 19th position.
NEW CHASSIS: Gustafson has chosen Hendrick Motorsports Chassis No. 5-453 for Saturday’s race at Daytona. Mears drove Chassis 5-453 to a sixth-place finish in the season-opening Budweiser Shootout at Daytona.
QUOTES
CASEY MEARS, DRIVER, NO. 5 CARQUEST/KELLOGG’S CHEVROLET (ON THE CARQUEST/KELLOGG’S CHEVROLET’S DAYTONA PERFORMANCE.): “We had a great car in February for both the Shootout and the (Daytona) 500. We were a little loose in the start of the race, which I think made everyone a bit nervous, but once the sun went down we were nearly perfect. We had the opportunity to win, but made contact there at the end with Tony (Stewart). I’m looking forward to going back and finishing this one the right way.”
MEARS (ON HENDRICK’S RESTRICTOR-PLATE PERFORMANCE.): “Hendrick Motorsports has such a good restrictor-plate program. I think you need to look at it, too, and see that the team has some really good drivers that have won a lot of restrictor-plate races. All four of these cars (Nos. 5, 24, 48 and 88) work really well together on the track. Making that happen is somewhat out of our control, but if the opportunity presents itself, you should see all four Hendrick teams up front in the end.”
ALAN GUSTAFSON, CREW CHIEF, NO. 5 CARQUEST/KELLOGG’S CHEVROLET (ON HIS APPROACH TO RUNNING AT DAYTONA INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY.): “Daytona is tough because you have to have speed, and you want to make sure the car is trimmed out and fast. But you really have to handle well there. That was the case in February. You really had to handle good with the old Monte Carlo, and you have to handle well with the new Impala. July makes it a little tougher because it’s so hot, and the track is so slick. The guy who can keep the throttle wide open longest is usually going to run the best. That’s how you look at that event. That’s a fun race and usually an exciting race. I love racing under the lights there—it adds a neat element.”
GUSTAFSON (ON HOW THE TEAM’S APPROACH DIFFERS FROM FEBRUARY TO JULY.): “In February, you focus more on pure speed with qualifying, and the track conditions are a little better with it being cooler. Qualifying is definitely more specialized then. When you go in July, the practice pace is quicker. You don’t have as much time so you have to be more prepared and just really focus on getting your car to handle well. You don’t focus on the speed as much. In February you worry about qualifying, getting maximum speed and then getting a car that drives good for the race. That’s the difference, and then you definitely take the track conditions into account. You know it’s going to be hot and slick and get slicker as you run throughout the night.”
GUSTAFSON (ON HIS MOST MEMORABLE JULY FOURTH.): “Some friends of mine are into pyrotechnics, and they go do these firework shows for different cities in Florida. I agreed to go do a show with them in Cocoa Beach one Fourth of July. It was crazy; to put on those big firework shows is quite an ordeal. I’m happy I made it through it and lived because it was very interesting. We had a lot of fun, so that was probably the most memorable one. They’re licensed, but you wouldn’t have known it by watching the show or watching what we were doing! It was a lot of fun. Those fireworks are big and take off in a hurry. You dig holes and put pipes in the ground and build ditches. We had a raft that was shooting them off, and we about burnt the raft down.”
GUSTAFSON (ON WHAT HE TOOK AWAY FROM HIS FIREWORKS EXPERIENCE.): “The biggest thing I learned was I needed more than just earplugs. I couldn’t hear for about two days! The dud ones were bad. I was setting the fireworks in the holes, and then my friend, who does it all the time, was going behind me and lighting them. I’ve had a few where you go to set it in there and it goes off when you’re about two feet away. That’s kind of exciting. I was probably 17 or 18 years old when I did it. I don’t know if I want to do it all the time, but I’d do it again, definitely.”
GUSTAFSON (ON IF THE TRACK’S PROXIMITY TO HIS HOME AFFECTED HIS CAREER CHOICE.): ”Probably. I think that fueled it at an early age. When the races would come to town, it was such a big deal, and there were so many people—it changed the city. I think when you’re young that’s the first thing you notice is how big of a deal it really was. If I grew up somewhere else I probably wouldn’t have realized that or got as excited about it. It definitely influences you—the track and the history of the track. At an early age, I got to meet a lot of people that were involved in NASCAR.”
GUSTAFSON (ON WHAT HE FIRST NOTICED IN HIS FIRST TRIP TO THE TRACK.): “The cars. The cars were always what I liked. They were neat; the ingenuity in the cars. How they looked and all the neat things you would see the fabricators do. Back in that time it wasn’t as engineering-heavy as it is now, but the crew chiefs and the fabricators would change those cars and make them look cool and run fast. I’m competitive. I like to race, but I got away from that at a pretty young age. From a teenager on I wasn’t that focused or interested in driving myself. I was more interested in the car.”
GUSTAFSON (ON HIS FIRST TRIP TO DAYTONA.): “My first trip to Daytona was to the Rolex 24-hour race. Those cars are really neat to go see because the prototypes are so much different than any other car or any street car. It was 24 hours, and I think I was 4 or 5 years old. The biggest thing I remember about it was that they opened up the crossover gate at the flag stand so all the fans could go across the track into the garage after the race. So we did that. You could go right next to the cars. It was really neat. The first stock car race I went to there was at the time the “Busch Clash.” My brother was a Cub Scout, and Cub Scouts got in free so that’s how we went.”
GUSTAFSON (ON HIS FIRST TIME IN THE GARAGE.): “It might have been when (President Ronald) Reagan was there. I remember they were welding up the manhole covers in the garage when he came. That would have been ‘85. That’s probably the first time I remember. My next-door neighbor worked for BellSouth, so we used to be able to go with him because they did all the communications for the TV crews and everything.”
