Mears, DIRECTV Chevy Battle Back, Finish 16th in Atlanta

Race/Date: Kobalt Tools 500 – March 8, 2009 - Location: Atlanta Motor Speedway – Hampton, Ga. - 
Start Position: 25th - Finish Position: 16th - Points Position: 25th (Gained two positions)

Hampton, Ga. – Casey Mears overcame an uncooperative race car and dumb luck in the early goings of the Kobalt Tools 500 to battle back and notch a respectable 16th-place finish Sunday at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

Mears went a lap down early and then lost another lap after a freak caution period for a wayward tire and the crewman who went to retrieve it. Still, the driver of the No. 07 DIRECTV Chevrolet and his Gil Martin-led team stayed in the game and left Atlanta with their heads high and a solid showing.

At the same time, the 30-year-old driver picked up two positions in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championship points, jumping from 27th to 25th in the standings. Mears trails 20th-place A.J. Allmendinger by only 20 points and sits just 40 markers behind Richard Childress Racing teammate Jeff Burton in 15th.

The Bakersfield, Calif., driver recorded his best qualifying effort of the four-race-young 2009 season Friday night, posting the 25th-fastest time of the session. Mears clocked in at 30.130 seconds, touring the ultra-quick Hampton, Ga., quad-oval at 184.003 mph.

Mears & Co. made the most of Saturday’s twin practice sessions, running a total 65 laps by day’s end. When the red flag waved on the weekend’s final warm-up, the DIRECTV camp was brimming with confidence heading into Sunday’s 500 miler.

Unfortunately, the early misfortune forced Mears to race two laps down for nearly the entire afternoon. Despite the circumstances, once Martin had a chance to fine-tune the blue and white No. 07 machine, the DIRECTV Chevy was recording lap times competitive with the top five.

While the 30-year-old driver was disappointed with the final result, the upward movement on the points chart proved to be the payoff for 500 miles at the office.

Kurt Busch earned the win beating Jeff Gordon to the checkers by just over three-tenths of a second. Carl Edwards was third, Kevin Harvick, driver of RCR’s No. 29 Reese’s Chevy, was fourth and Brian Vickers capped off the top five.

Mears’ fellow RCR teammate Clint Bowyer was sixth while Burton brought his Caterpillar Chevy home 14th.

NASCAR’s senior circuit enjoys next weekend off before short-track season kicks into high gear in two weeks at the “World’s Fastest Half Mile.”

The Food City 500 from Bristol Motor Speedway will be televised live on FOX Sun., March 22 beginning at 1:30 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time. The race will be broadcast live on the Performance Racing Network and Sirius XM Satellite Radio. Qualifying for the fifth points-paying race on the 2009 Sprint Cup Series calendar will be televised live on SPEED Fri., March 20 beginning at 3:30 p.m. EDT.

> CASEY MEARS QUOTES

“We had a really good DIRECTV Chevrolet. We were loose at the beginning of the race and took two tires to get track position, but we were just too loose to hang on with two tires when the fast guys had four. Then, we went into a long green-flag run and we were sideways and got a lap down. We pitted a little bit earlier than our window, not much earlier, then the caution came out because the guy ran across pit road and out onto the grass which put us another lap down. It just kind of takes you out of the race. After that, we had a top-five car. It’s too bad because we had a really good car. It’s frustrating when you’ve got a car you know is capable of running up front and can’t do anything with it. Our luck is going to turn around and, when it does, we’ll be in good shape."