En Espanol
Feedback

FanHouse

FanHouse

Resources

Email our editors with your tips, corrections, complaints, inquiries, suggestions, etc.

Blog Roll

Mears Officially Gone from Hendrick

Geoffrey MillerPosted Jun 27th 2008 10:35AM by Geoffrey Miller (author feed)
Filed under: Casey Mears, Hendrick Motorsports, Sprint Cup

Casey Mears is officially leaving Hendrick Motorsports, effective at the end of 2008.

Mears, currently 24th in the Sprint Cup standings, leaves Hendrick after never doing anything that impressive while in the driver seat at the premier organization -- with the exception of one lone win at Lowe's Motor Speedway in 2007.

It's been a constant struggle for Mears this season to produce results like the rest of his Hendrick teammates Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson, and Dale Earnhardt Jr. despite driving equipment built out of the same shop as Earnhardt. Dale Jr.'s No. 88 is currently 3rd in the standings.

Oddly enough, Mears' best finish of 2008 was just one week ago at Infineon Raceway when he brought the No. 5 Chevrolet home in fourth. Five finishes lower than 35th in 16 races this season, though, aren't wiped away with a single Top-5.

I like Casey Mears a lot -- he's a nice guy and doesn't cause problems on track -- but the statistics are much too telling about his performance at HMS. Granted he hasn't had the best of conditions to work under are switching racing teams and crew chiefs multiple times, but at some point, the results just have to come.

Mark Martin is rumored to be getting in the No. 5 for a last-ditch effort at a Sprint Cup title in 2009. From his performance in a few races in 2008 -- most notably at Phoenix -- the part-time Dale Earnhardt Inc. driver could really make some waves with the appropriate equipment.

Martin in the No. 5 for 2009? Sounds good to me.

Video: Waltrip Goes Bananas on Mears

Geoffrey MillerPosted May 6th 2008 11:50PM by Geoffrey Miller (author feed)
Filed under: Casey Mears, Michael Waltrip, Sprint Cup

It all started so innocently for Casey Mears Saturday night at Richmond International Raceway. As he came off of turn four, he'd slide up to the wall and cross the start/finish line to complete lap 355.

Trouble was, Michael Waltrip was there, and when Mears came across the nose of the No. 55, Waltrip was none too pleased and displayed it by pushing Mears down the straightaway and into the turn one wall. Follow along below at 0:13:



For the blatant contact following Mears' incidental mistake, Waltrip was parked by NASCAR for the remainder of the race, relegating him to a 37th-place finish.

Mears said this week that he was happy with the punishment handed out, and NASCAR also said that they wouldn't pursue any further sanctions against Waltrip mainly because the penalty cost Waltrip quite a few points.

As I stated in the previous blog post, this effort out of Waltrip seems to be a near-yearly occurence after he gets into a disagreement with a fellow driver. He just simply overreacts, and in this case, used his car ultimately as a weapon.

All of this, of course, goes back to one question.

Do you think Waltrip is upset with the people he meets at autograph signings?

NASCAR Video of the Week: California Crash

Geoffrey MillerPosted Feb 28th 2008 8:16AM by Geoffrey Miller (author feed)
Filed under: Casey Mears, Dale Earnhardt Jr., NASCAR Videos, Sprint Cup

This incident started so innocently with Casey Mears hitting a slick spot on track and sliding up into the loose stuff in turn 2 Sunday at Auto Club Speedway.

Within the first 20 seconds of the video below Mears has flipped, Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s day is ruined, Sam Hornish Jr. is out, and the red flag is waved. Enjoy:



What most impressed me in that crash was around the :50 mark, where the NASCAR safety worker that arrived on scene. When Hornish's engine engulfed in flames, Mears was stuck in an odd position and that worker jumped on to Mears' car with the fire burning behind him to help the driver. Kudos to all of the track safety workers involved.

Sprint Cup Races Monday After Long Sunday

Geoffrey MillerPosted Feb 25th 2008 9:19AM by Geoffrey Miller (author feed)
Filed under: Casey Mears, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Reed Sorenson, Denny Hamlin, Sprint Cup, Sam Hornish Jr.

Nearly 10 hours after the scheduled start of the Sprint Cup Auto Club 500, NASCAR officials finally ceded to the weather and track and decided the race on Monday.

It was Sunday night in California and Monday morning on the east coast when the postponement was declared just after 2:00am/ET.

Rain at the Auto Club Speedway had stopped much before that and most of the track indeed was dry. However, the battle that NASCAR and speedway officials have been battling all week with water seeping from the seams on the pavement reared its ugly head.

Before that, though, the action was exciting -- if not a tad unfair for some drivers.

Dale Earnhardt Jr., Casey Mears, Denny Hamlin, Reed Sorenson & Sam Hornish Jr. were caught up in wrecks less than 25 laps in to the event that appeared on television to be directly caused by the water seeping on to the track. Earnhardt Jr. was particularly unhappy about the race conditions.

Jimmie Johnson currently leads Travis Kvapil in the running order.

Monday promises to be a better day of racing -- if the seeping water can be corrected -- with a sunny day planned and a high of 67 degrees.

Tune in to FOX at 1pm/ET (10am/PT) to catch the resumption of the race from lap 87. The Nationwide Series race postponed from Saturday will be ran immediately in its entirety following that event on ESPN2.

Crazy Wreck Takes Out Earnhardt Jr., Mears

Geoffrey MillerPosted Feb 24th 2008 7:43PM by Geoffrey Miller (author feed)
Filed under: Casey Mears, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Reed Sorenson, Sprint Cup


A crazy wreck on the backstretch of Auto Club Speedway on lap 21 of Sunday's Auto Club 500 took out two drivers from Hendrick Motorsports and further inflamed some drivers who thought the track wasn't ready to race.

The wreck started when Mears' No. 5 shot up the track in turn 2, got loose, spun around and slid back down the track slamming teammate Dale Earnhardt Jr. in the passenger side. Earnhardt Jr.'s No. 88 then spun and hit the wall drivers side.

Meanwhile, Mears car slid back up the track and slowed to a near stop along the wall heading the same direction as traffic when Sam Hornish Jr. slid behind him and lifted the No. 5 up in the air and then over on its roof. Fire then spewed from Hornish's engine while safety workers quickly jumped to aid both drivers and put the fire out.

All drivers involved -- including Reed Sorenson who was involved -- walked away OK, but very frustrated. Earnhardt Jr. had the most visible anger:
"The track ain't ready today. We rushed into this [...] " said Earnhardt Jr, referring to NASCAR trying to get the race underway.
Denny Hamlin wrecked a few laps earlier to bring out the race's first caution after he got loose in turn 3 and slid up and contacted the wall.
"42 other drivers agree that we should not be driving today," said Hamlin. "I hit a slick spot and my car took off. My car just took off after I hit a wet spot."
A red flag was brought out after the Mears incident and as of 7:40pm/ET the race had not been restarted due to water seeping into the race track because NASCAR might have finally saw what the drivers saw -- the track was simply too wet to race on.

Hopefully we'll get it going sometime tonight...
Sorry, No Photos

Hendrick Teams Leave Daytona Disappointed

Geoffrey MillerPosted Feb 17th 2008 9:53PM by Geoffrey Miller (author feed)
Filed under: Jimmie Johnson, Casey Mears, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Jeff Gordon, Hendrick Motorsports, Daytona Int'l Speedway, Sprint Cup

The 50th-running of the Daytona 500 was supposed to be so much more for the four teams from Hendrick Motorsports.

A lineup of Dale Earnhardt Jr., Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson and Casey Mears will create those predictions.

Instead, the top finisher from Hendrick in Sunday's 500 was team newcomer Dale Earnhardt Jr. who finished a solid, but still disappointing ninth. Earnhardt Jr. looked primed to be a very strong contender in Sunday's race after winning last Saturday's Budweiser Shootout and his Gatorade Duel qualifying race.

A pit decision late in the race by failing to pit likely sealed any chances for Dale Jr. to win after he didn't pit when nearly every other leader did.

Jeff Gordon likely had the strongest car of the Hendrick bunch Sunday and showed that by hanging with the dominant Toyotas of Kyle Busch and Tony Stewart throughout the early parts of the race. After the second green-flag pit stop, Gordon dropped back mysteriously before charging back through the field.

Suddenly, though, Gordon fell off the pace and under caution, his No. 24 came into the garage to fix a bent front control arm.

Casey Mears was looking like he could play a big part in the final parts of the race until an ill-advised late move with 6 laps to go put him in the wall. His No. 5 was in the middle lane through the tri-oval with Tony Stewart and Dale Jr. lining up on the outside and gaining fast.
Continue Reading Hendrick Teams Leave Daytona Disappointed

Casey Mears' No. 5 Too Low After Shootout

Geoffrey MillerPosted Feb 10th 2008 9:26AM by Geoffrey Miller (author feed)
Filed under: Casey Mears, Tony Stewart, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Robby Gordon, Kurt Busch, Daytona Int'l Speedway, Sprint Cup

Check out all of the NASCAR Fanhouse Daytona Speedweeks Coverage.

Casey Mears can now add his name to the list as a candidate for penalties either this week or next from NASCAR due to rules infractions.

The Hendrick Motorsports driver competing in his first race Saturday night as driver of the No. 5 Kelloggs Chevrolet formerly piloted by Kyle Busch finished a strong sixth in the Budweiser Shootout. After his car went through inspection though, the mood changed a little bit for the team.

NASCAR found the No. 5 Chevy to be one-eighth of an inch too low in the rear, adding him to the tentative penalty box now filled by Mears, Kurt Busch & Tony Stewart (bumping and punching during Friday night's Shootout practice), and Robby Gordon (came to Daytona with the wrong Dodge nose on the car).

Mears' new teammate Dale Earnhardt Jr. won the event.

Crew chief Alan Gustafson seemed quite perplexed by the finding.
"I don't think our adjustments were unreasonable, so I'm real surprised," Gustafson said. "It's the first time we ran the car here. We're trying to learn it and figure out what's going to happen. ... We'll collect all the pieces together and figure out what went on."
I don't know that you can really fault Mears' team here, nor would it be appropriate to lump this lapse in with last year's Hendrick penalties and the laundry list of bad deeds committed by Jimmie Johnson's crew chief Chad Knaus.

Could one-eighth of an inch make a difference? Possibly. Should it really matter to a driver who finished sixth in a non-points race? I don't think so.
Continue Reading Casey Mears' No. 5 Too Low After Shootout

Track Record Eclipsed During Vegas Test

Geoffrey MillerPosted Jan 30th 2008 5:51PM by Geoffrey Miller (author feed)
Filed under: Casey Mears, Tony Stewart, Kasey Kahne, Jeff Gordon, Juan Montoya, A.J. Allmendinger, Sprint Cup, NASCAR Testing

Juan Pablo Montoya made a big statement Tuesday afternoon at Las Vegas Motor Speedway to doubters of the NASCAR's next-generation race car for the Sprint Cup series.

Turning a lap of 186.761mph, Montoya would have taken the official track record away from Kasey Kahne (184.856mph in 2007) had it been an official qualifying session.

But one thing Montoya did was to prove that the new race car isn't as slow as everyone thought, and that teams are adapting to the packages well. It should be noted, of course, that teams aren't loudly disapproving of the tires that Goodyear brought like they did last year for the race at Vegas.

As you may recall, Tony Stewart's approval of the tires in '07 terms for describing them was "crap" on the newly configured surface.

As teams, though, head into their travel/work day before testing at California Speedway on Thursday and Friday, the general consensus seems to be that teams are getting a handle on the car and the track in Vegas. That's only good news for race fans.

A.J. Allmendinger, Casey Mears, Kasey Kahne and Reed Sorenson rounded out the five fastest cars at LVMS.

Jeff Burton tore up a race car early Tuesday while Tony Stewart scraped the wall and Michael Waltrip looped his -- all in turn three. The test session was ended a few minutes early after Jeff Gordon laid oil down on the track.

Keep it here at NASCAR Fanhouse for plenty of updates on the Sprint Cup testing in California.

Surprise! Johnson Leads Morning Session

Geoffrey MillerPosted Jan 7th 2008 4:44PM by Geoffrey Miller (author feed)
Filed under: Jimmie Johnson, Casey Mears, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Hendrick Motorsports, Daytona Int'l Speedway, Sprint Cup, NASCAR Testing

Here's a big time shocker from testing at Daytona Int'l Speedway this morning:

Jimmie Johnson was the fastest.

Apparently not wanting to fall off at all from his championship run in 2007, Johnson opened the first official testing for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series at Daytona Monday morning with a session-leading lap of 184.782 mph. Johnson was testing in his No. 48A Chevrolet Impala.

Casey Mears, who was the first driver on track at 9am/ET Monday morning, secured second and third place on the speed charts with his No. 5 Chevys. New Hendrick Motorsports teammate Dale Earnhardt Jr. isn't scheduled to test until next week, but he was at Daytona today, just "hanging out".

Jacques Villeneuve (183.329mph) and A.J. Allmendinger (183.296mph) were fourth and fifth. Click for full results of the morning session.

Daytona testing is known to be a festival of boring for the drivers as they run two-lap qualifying runs, cut the engine, coast in to the garage and wait as adjustments are made. There's been no word as of yet, but occasionally NASCAR runs a drafting session with a pack of cars on the final day of each three-day testing period.

Check back later on the Fanhouse for afternoon speeds from Daytona.

NASCAR FanHouse Top 25 Year-in-Review:
Casey Mears, No. 25 Hendrick Chevrolet

Geoffrey MillerPosted Dec 20th 2007 8:00AM by Geoffrey Miller (author feed)
Filed under: Casey Mears, Chevrolet, Hendrick Motorsports


Welcome to the 2007 NASCAR FanHouse Year in Review. Follow along each day until the end of 2007 as we look back on the top 25 drivers of the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series for the 2007 season. Heck, bookmark us if you have to! Today, we review the season of 15th-place Casey Mears.

Driver: Casey Mears -- Bakersfield, California
Team: No. 25 National Guard Chevrolet
Points: 15th (-2774)
2006: 14th in Cup Standings
Key Stats: 1 win, 1 pole, 5 Top-5s, 10 Top-10s
Back in 2008?: Yes, swapping from Hendrick's No. 25 ride to the No. 5 Kelloggs car

Casey Mears could have easily rode his middle-to-late season consistency all the way to his first Chase for the Nextel Cup in his first season with Hendrick Motorsports had 2007 gotten off on a better foot.

Mears suffered through two DNF's in 2007 at Las Vegas and Talladega -- off the hood of teammate Jimmie Johnson -- that both occured before the month of April was over. Coupled with a suspicious handling problem at Martinsville and a lack of experience with his new team at California and Atlanta, Mears found himself in a hole early in '07.

During the final twenty races of 2008, Mears average a 14.8th-place finish. During the final 15, that number bumped up to 14.4. In the final ten? 13.7. (Click to continue reading)

Continue Reading NASCAR FanHouse Top 25 Year-in-Review:
Casey Mears, No. 25 Hendrick Chevrolet
ADVERTISEMENT
Play Fantasy Football
ADVERTISEMENT