By Dick Mittman
allstate400atthebrickyard.com
Tuesday, July 29, 2003
It's taken three years and a change in career direction for Casey Mears to arrive at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway as a full-time race driver.
His Uncle Rick is one of only three four-time winners of the Indianapolis 500. His father, Roger, twice drove in the Indianapolis 500. Although Casey passed his Indianapolis 500 rookie test in 2000, he'll race at the Speedway for the first time as a rookie in the NASCAR Winston Cup Series Brickyard 400 on Sunday, Aug. 3.
Mears, 25, is driving the No. 41 Target Dodge as part of Chip Ganassi's three-car NASCAR team. He and fellow rookie Jamie McMurray share garages with veteran Sterling Marlin.
With his background, young Mears expected to follow his family to race in the Indianapolis 500. It didn't happen, despite a near miss in 2001.
Mears placed second in the 1999 Indy Lights series, passed his rookie test at Indy the next year with Hemelgarn Racing and earned his first Indy Lights victory at Houston. He then drove to a sensational fourth place in his CART debut in a Team Rahal car at California Speedway, also in 2000. He made three IRL IndyCarTM Series starts in a partial-season deal with Galles Racing in 2001 and failed to qualify for the 2001 Indianapolis 500 in one Bump Day attempt in a Walker Racing entry.
In October 2001, Mears jumped in an ARCA stock car and drove to ninth at Talladega Superspeedway. His stock-car career was underway.
"It's totally different now," Mears said. "I never thought I'd be over this way (Winston Cup) at this point. I just always have grown up in open wheel, and I thought that was going to be my direction."
The ARCA performance led to a NASCAR Busch Series ride with Welliver-Jesel Motorsports. Last year he recorded a best finish of fifth at Talladega, and, despite finishing 21st in the final standings, Ganassi invited Mears to join his Dodge Winston Cup team. Mears hasn't had great luck so far, sitting 34th in the standings, but is learning on the job.
"You know, it was good to come over here, try it out and see what it was like," he said. "And I'm pretty happy. I really like it over here."
Despite his career path veering to stock cars, Mears still wants to drive in the Indianapolis 500.
"That's something that's been real big to me," Mears said. "I'd like to do that at some point, but right now I'm pretty happy where I'm at."
Mears, from Bakersfield, Calif., said the team communication has improved plenty since he made his Winston Cup debut at the Daytona 500 with a 27th-place finish after starting 29th. His crew chief is Jimmy Elledge, who joined the Ganassi team that is partnered with Felix Sabates after four years as crew chief for Andy Petree Racing.
Top-10 finishes were in the making at consecutive races at Pocono and Michigan in June, Mears said, but running out of fuel in one and not getting a full tank on a pit stop at the other dropped him back. Mears thinks the results don't show how well the car ran, but he admits the team, driver and crew must put a full race together.
"I don't need to make any mistakes, and we can't have any mistakes in the pits," he said. "Just have a good clean race, and I think we could have a good top-10 finish."
Mears is third in the points for the rookie of the year award, but he is more concerned with showing steady improvement through the remaining races than overtaking leader Greg Biffle in the rookie race.
"That's kind of our goal right now, to find that top 20, top 15 consistently, and then start working up to the top 10," Mears said.
"I really don't think too much about it, but at the end of the year if you could win the Rookie of the Year, it would be huge because there's definitely a tough class this year. There're a lot of guys that are really strong in good equipment. To win that definitely would be an honor."
Doing well at Indy, of course, is paramount when a driver's last name is Mears. His father will be there, as he drives Casey's motorhome to all of the races. There's a possibility Uncle Rick also will be on hand. Rick Mears is a consultant to Penske Racing in the IRL IndyCar Series and is the driving coach for the IRL Infiniti Pro Series. Both of those series are off this weekend.
Casey Mears comes to Indy with momentum gained after returning to his stock-car roots last weekend at Pocono. He won both ARCA races at Pocono, July 25 and 26.
Roger Mears, an off-road racing superstar, didn't have much luck at Indy. As a rookie in 1982, he never got to the starting line. That was the year the CV joint broke on Kevin Cogan's right-front wheel, and he swerved into A.J. Foyt's car, causing havoc at the start/finish line that brought out the red flag. Mears parked his car against the inside wall only to have another rookie, Dale Whittington, hit it. The next year, Roger Mears lasted 43 laps before crashing in Turn 1.
"He never did get in good equipment or really have a good opportunity here, but I haven't, either," said Casey Mears, who was 4 when his father was a rookie at Indy. "At least I'm in a great stock car right now. I'm coming back here, and I have a very good chance of making the show and being strong.
"That's a good feeling, definitely."
Tickets: Reserved-seat Race Day tickets for the Brickyard 400 remain available. Tickets and parking can be purchased on the World Wide Web via www.imstix.com or by calling the IMS Ticket Office at (800) 822-INDY or (317) 492-6700.
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