Casey Mears

Casey Mears
Achievements	2006 24 Hours of Daytona overall co-winner
NASCAR Cup Series career
Car no., team	83 - Red Bull Racing Team
2009 position	21st
Best finish	14th - 2006
First race	2003 Daytona 500 (Daytona)
First win	2007 Coca-Cola 600 (Charlotte)
Last win	2007 Coca-Cola 600 (Charlotte)
Wins Top tens Poles 1 46 3
NASCAR Xfinity Series career
2009 position	104th
Best finish	20th - 2007
First race	2001 GNC Live Well 300 (Homestead)
First win	2006 USG Durock 300 (Chicago)
Last win	2006 USG Durock 300 (Chicago)
Wins Top tens Poles 1 32 4

Casey James Mears (born March 12, 1978) is a substitute driver for the #83 Red Bull Toyota Camry in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series for Team Red Bull while Brian Vickers is on a Medical Leave of Absence during the 2010 season.

Mears is the nephew of four time Indianapolis 500 winner Rick Mears and the son of IRL and off-road veteran Roger Mears.

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. He moved to sprint cars in 1994 and finished third in the Jim Russell USAC Triple Crown Championship, with a win at Mesa Marin Raceway. The next season, he won the championship in the USAC series.

In 1996, Mears made his CART's Indy Lights championship series debut at the Cleveland Grand Prix and finished eighth. The following year, he competed full-time in the Indy Lights championship and in 1999 finished second, losing by 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 in 2000 and won his first race at the Grand Prix of Houston meeting 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, he posted a career-best fourth finish in his CART Series debut. He ran three IRL events at the start of the 2001 season, and ended the season by filling in for injured ChampCar driver Alex Zanardi, posting one top-10 finish in four starts.

Mears had five CART starts, with one top-5 finish, and three IRL starts, with no top-5 finishes.

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. Throughout 2003, Casey drove a number of ARCA races for Chip, winning 3 at Michigan, and both Pocono races. He drove the #41 Sprint Cup 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.

Mears started off 2006 with a then-best career finish of second, holding off Ryan Newman as Jimmie Johnson soared away to win the 2006 Daytona 500.

File:IMG 1677.jpg

Casey Mears' 2007 NEXTEL Cup car

On June 6, 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.

Casey Mears racing in his Busch Series car

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

2008 Cup car

In 2008 Mears moved to the Alan Gustafson-led No. 5 Kellogg's/Carquest Chevrolet Impala formerly driven by Kyle Busch. On July 4, 2008, Hendrick Motorsports owner Rick Hendrick and current DEI driver Mark Martin both announced that Martin will replace Mears in the #5 car for the 2009 season, running a full-time schedule for the first time since 2006, with the same Kellogg's/Carquest as a sponsor.

On August 23, 2008, Mears was announced as the driver of Richard Childress Racing's No. 07 Jack Daniel's Chevrolet Impala SS. The previous driver of the car, Clint Bowyer, would drive the team's new No. 33 General Mills Chevrolet Impala SS. In his first season at RCR, Mears notched 2 top ten finishes. After Mears struggled during the first seven races of the year, Richard Childress switched the crew chiefs for Harvick and Mears' cars, hoping for a better performance from the two drivers. The switch seemed to work for both parties.

On October 21, 2009, it was announced Mears would be getting his 3rd crew chief of the season starting at Talladega. Todd Berrier would be moving to the #31 team in place of Scott Miller. Doug Randolph took over as the crew chief on the #07. This move was made primarily because the future of the 07 was uncertain and Childress wanted to keep Berrier in the family. After the switch, Mears struggled with his new crew chief and had a best finish of 19th at Homestead. Mears was released by Richard Childress Racing following the 2009 season.

It was announced on January 20, 2010 that that Mears would drive the #90 Key Motorsports Chevrolet. Mears failed to qualify for the 2010 Daytona 500, ending a starting streak of 252 consecutive races; this was Mears first DNQ of his career. Mears also failed to qualify for Fontana, Las Vegas, and Atlanta. After qualifying for Martinsville was rained out and the team didn't qualify, Mears was released by the team. Following his release from Key Motorsports, Joe Gibbs announced that Mears would be on standby status while JGR driver, Denny Hamlin, recovers from ACL surgery; however, Denny Hamlin did not require a replacement and therefore Mears did not drive in either of the two races. Beginning on April 27,2010, Mears briefly became the driver for Tommy Baldwin's #36 team. On May 13, Mears was announced as the temporary replacement driver for the #83 Red Bull Racing Team at Dover, replacing a sick Brian Vickers . On May 21st it was announced that Vickers will miss the rest of the season due medical reasons, and Mears will drive the #83 car on a week by week basis.

During the June 13, 2010 race at Michigan International Speedway, while racing near the back of the field, Mears wrecked his Red Bull Racing Teammate, Scott Speed. Speed went on to finish 28th and Mears finished 36th. Following the race, Speed was critical of Mears, stating, "Both of us were struggling, but wrecking us like that -- I mean is ridiculous. Whenever you're at Hendrick [Motorsports] and Richard Childress Racing and then you still don't have a ride and haven't done anything, there's no real excuses after that."

GrandAm

Mears teamed with Scott Dixon and Dan Wheldon on January 29, 2006 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 overall.

In 2009 Mears shared the #2 Gentleman Jack Pontiac-Crawford with Andy Wallace, Rob Finley and Danica Patrick. They suffered electrical and handling issues during the race and finished eighth.

Sprint Cup Series Statistics

Sprint cup

Year	Starts	Wins	Top Fives	Top Tens	Poles	Rank	Team(s)
2003	36	0	0	0	0	35th	Chip Ganassi Racing
2004	36	0	1	9	2	22nd	Chip Ganassi Racing
2005	36	0	3	9	0	22nd	Chip Ganassi Racing
2006	36	0	2	8	0	14th	Chip Ganassi Racing
2007	36	1	5	10	1	15th	Hendrick Motorsports
2008	36	0	1	6	0	20th	Hendrick Motorsports
2009	36	0	0	4	0	21st	Richard Childress Racing
2010	3	0	0	0	0	47th	Keyed-Up Motorsports (Bristol), Tommy Baldwin Racing (Richmond), Red Bull Racing Team
Totals	253	1	12	46	3	-

Last Updated: April 18, 2010

Nationwide Series Statistics

Year	Starts	Wins	Top Fives	Top Tens	Poles	Rank	Team(s)
2001	1	0	0	0	0	116th	Cicci-Welliver Racing
2002	34	0	1	2	0	21st	Welliver-Jesel Motorsports
2003	14	0	1	4	1	34th	Braun Racing
2004	13	0	2	6	3	34th	Phoenix Racing
2005	1	0	0	0	0	116th	Akins Motorsports
2006	9	1	4	5	0	38th	Chip Ganassi Racing
2007	19	0	6	14	0	20th	Hendrick Motorsports
2009	1	0	1	1	0	100th	Richard Childress Racing
2010	1	0	0	0	0	64th	Braun Racing
Totals	93	1	16	32	4	-

Last Updated: April 18, 2010

External links

• Official Website of Casey Mears
• Sprint Cup Driver Page at NASCAR.com
• Casey Mears at Daytona 500 Racing
• Career statistics at Racing-Reference.info