Trouble Comes in Pairs for Mears, Jack Daniel’s Chevy, at Darlington

Race/Date: Southern 500 – May 9, 2009 - Location: Darlington Raceway – Darlington, S.C. - Start Position: 13th - Finish Position: 36th - Points Position: 22nd (Fell two positions)

DARLINGTON, S.C. – Casey Mears was collected in a pair of incidents in Saturday night’s Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway, ultimately strapping the driver of Jack Daniel’s Chevrolet with a 36th-place finish.

After being caught up in two separate incidents at the daunting 1.366-mile egg-shaped oval, Mears and his Todd Berrier-led team were forced to spend extensive time in the garage area making repairs.

Mears was still able to log 238 of the scheduled 367 laps, earning as many valuable points as the evening would allow. Still, the veteran driver only lost two positions in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series point standings and now trails Richard Childress Racing teammate Kevin Harvick by just five points for 21st.

With 15 races remaining before the Chase for the Sprint Cup – NASCAR’s 12-team playoff system – begins in September, Mears is only 167 points back from the 12th and final transfer spot, affording Mr. Jack’s Crew plenty of time to make a run at the top 12.

While the final outcome fell far short of hopes, the weekend was another solid building block for the recently joined Mears and Berrier pairing.

The Jack Daniel’s Chevy was fast all weekend and near the top of the speed charts during both practices.

Mears followed that up by earning his best starting spot of the 2009 season in Friday afternoon’s qualifying session after touring Darlington’s storied oval in 27.736 seconds at a speed of 177.300 mph. The spirited effort was the 13th-quickest time of the day, affording the driver of the Jack Daniel’s Chevrolet a starting spot on the inside of the seventh row for the annual Mother’s Day weekend 500-miler at the track “Too Tough to Tame.”

After starting 13th, Mears was up to 12th by the second lap and inside the top 10 just 16 laps into the event. Much to the chagrin of driver and team, the competitive nature of the night was short lived and the Jack Daniel’s Chevy was pushed back to the garage area following the team’s first incident on lap 30.

Mears was back on the track by lap 125, but a second incident just prior to the 300-mile mark negated the team’s previous repair work and the black and white No. 07 machine was back in the garage area for repairs.

Despite the damage from both incidents, the Jack Daniel’s Chevy still posted lap times comparable with that of the front-runners while it was on the track, proving the recent competitive trend isn’t a fluke.

Mears’ RCR teammates Harvick and Jeff Burton finished 11th and 12th, respectively. Fellow RCR stablemate Clint Bowyer was collected in a lap 222-accident that left his BB&T Chevy 37th in the final rundown. Bowyer made contact with the outer retaining wall on lap 221, but as he gathered his Chevy Impala SS back up, another competitor made contact with his machine, sending him hard into the inside wall. The damage was too extensive to repair and Bowyer’s 83 consecutive starts without a DNF (did not finish) came to an end.

Mark Martin went on to collect his second checkered flag of the season, beating Jimmie Johnson to the finish line but just over a second-and-a-half. Tony Stewart was third, Ryan Newman fourth and Jeff Gordon finished fifth.

Next week, the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series takes a break from points racing for the division’s annual all-star festivities in Charlotte. Mears & Co. will have to race their way into the main event via the Sprint Showdown qualifying race or win the highly coveted fan vote to earn a starting spot in the $1 million-to-win event. Log on to http://www.nascar.com/promos/allstar/?sc_cid=allstar5 to give Mr. Jack’s Crew the nod.

Live coverage of the Sprint Showdown and NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race will be televised on SPEED Saturday, May 16 beginning at 7 p.m. EDT. The second and final non-points event of the 2009 season will be broadcast live from coast to coast on the Motor Racing Network and Sirius XM Satellite Radio. Qualifying for the Sprint Cup Series annual all-star extravaganza will be telecast live on SPEED Friday, May 15 at beginning at 5 p.m. EDT.

CASEY MEARS QUOTES

"I should have known better because everybody stacks up real bad after a restart. I got underneath the No. 44 (A.J. Allmendinger) and was getting pushed from the No. 31 (Jeff Burton) and then I don't know if everybody got too wide or somebody kind of bobbled, but we just all checked up real fast and that was it."

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