• This Week’s Jack Daniel’s Chevrolet at Texas Motor Speedway … Casey Mears will pilot Chassis No. 269 from the Richard Childress Racing NASCAR Sprint Cup Series stable in this weekend’s Samsung 500. Built new for 2009, this is the same Jack Daniel’s Chevrolet Impala SS Mears raced to a 16th-place finish in the Kobalt Tools 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
• Texas Totals … In 10 Sprint Cup races at TMS, Mears owns two top-five and four top-10 finishes, including a pair of career-best fourth-place efforts. Mears notched back-to-back fourth-place showings in 2005 while driving for Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates. Over those 10 races, the Bakersfield, Calif., native has logged a 22.2 starting average combined with a solid 15.3 average finish. At the same time, he has led 38 laps, completed 98.8 percent of the laps run and earned just shy of $1.5 million in purse money.
• Martinsville Minutes … Mears and the Jack Daniel’s Racing team came up one spot short in their bid for a top-20 finish in last Sunday’s Goody’s Fast Relief 500 at Martinsville Speedway. Mears raced inside the top 25 all afternoon and was the first car one lap down when the checkered flag waved. While he ultimately lost one spot in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championship point standings, a slim 37 markers separates 26th through 18th in the standings.
• Meet the Press … As part of NASCAR’s Winner’s Circle program, Mears will participate in a host of local media opportunities Friday morning. From 6:45 – 7 a.m., Mears will be interviewed live from Victory Lane on KTVT Channel 11 – the Dallas / Fort Worth area’s CBS affiliate. Immediately following the KTVT spot, Mears will head for the TMS Broadcast center for interviews with Paris, Texas’s K99.5 and Dallas / Fort Worth’s NewsRadio 1080 AM. From 8:15 – 8:25 a.m., Mears will be on KEGL’s “Lex and Terry Show” followed by interviews with Houston’s “Sports Animal” and KTKR in San Antonio.
• RCR at TMS … In 43 starts at TMS, dating back to April 6, 1997, RCR has recorded one win, five top-five and 16 top-10 finishes with Clint Bowyer, Jeff Burton, Dale Earnhardt, Kevin Harvick and Jeff Green. Prior to TMS’s inaugural season, Richard Childress, a former driver in NASCAR’s top division, earned a pair of top 10s while he was still behind the wheel at the now defunct Texas World Speedway in College Station.
• Casey Mears Live … Mears will sign autographs at the Jack Daniel’s souvenir trailer located in the display area outside the front straightaway Sun., April 5 at 9:15 a.m. A limited number of tickets will be available for autographs on a first come, first served basis due to time constraints.
• Are You Experienced … Mears will appear at the Jack Daniel’s Experience on Sun., April 5 at 10 a.m. The Jack Daniel’s Experience (JDX) will be positioned in the display area on speedway property near Gate 2. The JDX is a 42-foot tractor- trailer filled with artifacts, state-of-the art video monitors, sound system and graphics to give race fans a taste of Lynchburg (pop. 361), Tenn. and the Distillery. The JDX will be open Fri., April 3 from 10 a.m. – 4 p.m., Sat., April 4 from 8 a.m. – 2 p.m. and Sun., April 5 from 7:30 a.m. – 1 p.m.
• Catch the Action … Live coverage of the Samsung 500 from Texas Motor Speedway begins Sun., April 5 at 1:30 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time. The event will also be broadcast live on the Performance Racing Network and Sirius XM Satellite Radio. Qualifying for the seventh event on the 2009 Sprint Cup Series calendar is scheduled to take the green flag on Fri., April 3 at 4:30 p.m. EDT and will be telecast live on SPEED. PRN and Sirius XM Satellite Radio will provide live qualifying updates.
CASEY MEARS QUOTES
You have a pretty good track record at Texas. Statistically speaking, it seems like that’s a track where you’re comfortable.
“I’ve run well at Texas in the past but I’ve struggled the last couple times. I’m looking forward to going back with Gil (crew chief Gil Martin) and the Jack Daniel’s team because they qualified and ran so well last fall. They feel like they’ve got some stuff figured out at Texas. I’m looking forward to seeing what we have when we unload this weekend.”
Texas is notable for high speeds and the track being fairly narrow. Does it seem like it’s even narrower now with the new style car?
“With the newer car, you’re forced to search. Guys don’t run the middle or the top because they want to, it’s because they have to. You can’t run behind anybody. If you get within three of four car lengths of someone, the car starts pushing or gets really loose and you can’t get any closer. The optimum place to be at Texas, most of the time, is on the bottom, but there’s usually someone else there and you just can’t run down there like you want to all the time. We’re focusing on having a car that is really good on the bottom but in practice, we’ll work on running the middle and the top because you’ll have to, at some point, during the race.”
Where’s the best place to pass at Texas?
“It all depends on how your car is handling. I’ve had cars that were better off turn 4 and I’ve had cars that were better off turn 2 and made all my passes there. It seems like you get more runs off of turn 2 and going into (turn) 3. It opens up off (turn) 4 and everybody gets a pretty good run. Honestly, it can go either way.”
Texas seems like it’s getting racier. Do you believe that to be that case?
“I think it’s more of a product of the tires and the cars than it is the tracks themselves. We’re running the middle and the top more now than we ever have. I don’t know if it’s the tracks getting better as much as it is the scenarios we’re in forcing us to go in that direction. I can’t think of a track where we don’t run around the middle or the top. We used to always be on the bottom. It’s forcing us as drivers and teams to get more creative to build cars that work around the middle or the top. We have to try something new to be able to pass somewhere besides the bottom. In some ways, that makes it a lot racier and more fun for the fans but, in other ways, it makes it more difficult from the team side. Texas has opened up a lot but I think it’s more of a product of the car and tire we have these days than it is the track changing and allowing for that.”
On the surface, it seems the racing would be better at a track with a lot of grip. How do you explain that less grip can mean better racing?
“When a track is new, it has the most grip. But when it has the most grip, you have to use every bit if the track to get everything out of it. You have to enter the corners at the top, go to the bottom and you have to exit at the top. When the track starts getting hot and slick and a little bit worn, it gives you options to try other areas … you can run the top or the middle.”
