Mears, Jack Daniel’s Chevy Solider to 24th at Bristol

Race/Date: Food City 500 – March 22, 2009 - Location: Bristol Motor Speedway – Bristol, Tenn. - 
Start Position: 38th - Finish Position: 24th - Points Position: 25th (Maintained Position)

Bristol, Tenn. – While finishing 24th in the Food City 500 wasn’t exactly the plan for Casey Mears and the Jack Daniel’s Racing team, the end result still proved effective for the driver of the No. 07 Chevrolet Impala SS and his Gil Martin-led team.

Despite ending up just outside the top 20 Sunday at the famed Bristol Motor Speedway, Mears maintained the 25th position in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Championship point standings and sits a slim 20 points behind Martin Truex Jr. in 20th.

At the same time, 15th in the standings is still well within Mears’ grasp as the seventh-year Sprint Cup veteran trails Juan Pablo Montoya by just 58 markers with an abundant 31 races remaining on the 2009 calendar.

While Friday’s time trials weren’t what the Jack Daniel’s camp hoped for, Saturday’s happy hour was with Mears being shown eighth-quick in the weekend’s final warm up heading into Sunday’s 500-lap feature.

Mears was marred in heavy race traffic in the early going and struggled with a tight-handling machine. Martin used the first caution flag of the day, on lap 26, to call his driver to pit road to top off with fuel and bolt on a fresh set of Goodyears, with air pressure adjustments to both rear tires.

Two more cautions waved from laps 32 – 58 and the veteran crew chief rolled the dice during the second, keeping his driver on the track while most others pitted. The motivation was to garner valuable track position and free up the handling on the black and white No. 07 machine.

Sitting eighth for the lap 67 restart, Mears fought valiantly to hang in with the leaders but eventually faded to 28th before NASCAR slowed the field for the fourth time just before the race’s one-quarter mark.

The Jack Daniel’s Chevy was back on the service lane two laps later for fresh tires, fuel and another round of adjustments.

Green-flag racing consumed the next 124 trips around the “World’s Fastest Half Mile” and the 31-year-old driver moved up from 29th to 27th on the scoreboard.

When the yellow waved on lap 319, Mears advised Martin that he was battling a loose-handling race car entering Bristol’s 30-degree banked corners and getting back to the throttle on exit, but the car was much better as the tires wore.

In addition to routine service during the subsequent pit stop, Martin called for an air pressure adjustment to the right tire to help the car handle better on fresh rubber.

As the laps continued to click off during the latter stages of the event, Mears gained modest ground and moved up to 26th before making his last trip to pit road on lap 444.

Following a blistering-fast 13.6-second pit stop during their final sequence of the day, Mr. Jack’s Crew earned their driver a pair of spots in the pits, sending their driver back to green-flag racing 24th in the running order.

As the race wound down, the seventh-year Sprint Cup veteran held his position inside the top 25 and took the checkered flag 24th in the final rundown.

Mears’ RCR teammates Jeff Burton and Clint Bowyer finished eighth and 13th, respectively. Fellow stablemate Kevin Harvick was involved in a pair of on-track incidents and was scored 30th in the final rundown.

Kyle Busch and Denny Hamlin swept the top two positions while Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon finished third and fourth. Kasey Kahne rounded out the top five.

NASCAR’s senior circuit heads for Martinsville, Va., next weekend and perhaps one of the most challenging venues on the 36-stop tour.

In preparation for this Sunday’s 500-lapper in Martinsville, Mears, Martin and Mr. Jack’s Crew will spend Monday testing at the “Little Rock” – a flat half-mile speedway, similar in configuration to the 0.526-mile paper clip-shaped oval, located on the grounds of Rockingham Raceway Park in Rockingham, N.C.

FOX’s live coverage of the Goody’s Fast Pain Relief 500 from Martinsville Speedway will take the green flag Sun., March 29 beginning at 1:30 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time. The race will be broadcast live on the Motor Racing Network and Sirius XM Satellite Radio. Qualifying for the sixth of 36 races on the 2009 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series schedule will be televised live on SPEED Fri., March 27 beginning at 3:30 p.m. EDT. MRN and Sirius XM Satellite Radio will provide live qualifying updates.

> CASEY MEARS QUOTES

“The Jack Daniel’s Chevrolet was really good late in the run but I just couldn’t get going on fresh tires. My teammate Jeff Burton stayed out during the same caution we stayed out on and it worked really well for those guys. For whatever reason, it didn’t work out as well for us. We didn’t run as well as we thought we would so obviously, everyone is a little bit disappointed. We’re only five races into the season so no one is panicking. We’re going to Martinsville this weekend and that’s a track I really enjoy. I’m excited about it. We’ll shake off Bristol this week and get geared up for Martinsville.”