Casey Mears, No. 07 Jack Daniel’s Chevrolet Team have Frustrating Finish at Pocono

Race: Sunoco American Red Cross Pennsylvania 500 - Venue: Pocono Raceway; Long Pond, Penn.- 
Start: 21st - Finish: 25th - Points: 21st (no change)

Long Pond, Penn. – Casey Mears and the No. 07 Jack Daniel’s team of Richard Childress Racing had a frustrating weekend at Pocono Raceway. First, practice was cut short and qualifying was cancelled Friday because of rain. Then, Mother Nature returned to the track with showers on Sunday postponing the race until Monday.

Once the race started at noon, driver and team worked toward improving their track position throughout the race. However, ever-changing track conditions and three-wide battles with fellow competitors frustrated their efforts, saddling them with a 25th-place finish.

Mears and Co. were 36th on the speed chart for the rain-shortened practice session on Friday. While some teams had already switched to qualifying trim during the session, the Todd Berrier-led Jack Daniel’s team remained in race trim until the rains started.

Heavy rains continued to hang around for the day forcing NASCAR to cancel qualifying. This lined up the field on owner’s points placing the No. 07 Jack Daniel’s driver 21st in the starting field. Both practice sessions were completed on Saturday with Mears laying down the 14th and 29th-fastest times on the speed charts.

Sunny skies greeted the die-hard NASCAR fans on Monday as the 200-lap, 500-mile race began at 12:15 p.m. Once the initial green flag waved, Mears settled into the mid-20s of the running order.

NASCAR told teams before the race there was going to be a competition caution on lap 20 to check for tire wear. Prior to that, Mears radioed in regarding how the car was responding around the three distinct turns of Pocono.

While Turn 1 was giving him a little trouble, Turn 2 wasn’t much of an issue and Turn 3 was fine. After pitting for tires, fuel, air pressure and chassis adjustments, Mears returned to action in 26th place.

From there, several more caution and two green-flag pit stops allowed the crew to make more adjustments. As the sun heated up the track and more rubber was put down, surface conditions altered the initial set-up for many teams.

Such was the case with the No. 07 Chevrolet as Mears coursed his way around the relatively flat tri-oval. He fell to 34th at one point before racing his way back up to 26th via green flag runs and good pit stops by Mr. Jack’s Crew.

During one of the early stops, gasman Brian Englehart injured his shoulder picking up a full gas can. He tried to complete another stop, but pulled himself from competition immediately due to the pain. Fortunately, the team’s hauler driver and veteran champion crew member, Jeff “Rooster” Craven, was close by and called into duty to complete the day.

Green flag stops on lap 90 helped correct how the car maneuvered the turns. Just before the halfway point, Mears told Berrier and team it was the best the car had felt in awhile. After restarting 34th on lap 101 after a caution, Mears raced his way back up to 27th in just seven laps.

Another green flag stop on lap 133 helped alleviate difficulties getting through Turns 1 and 3 for Mears. Towards the end of the race, several cautions waved due to over anxious drivers trying to win the race way before the checkered flag. This resulted in multi-car wrecks which, fortunately, Mears adeptly avoided.

Berrier called for several right-side tire only stops to gain valued track position. Unfortunately, many other teams chose the same strategy to gain or retain track position.

With less than 50 laps remaining, Mears raced his way into the lower 20s and broke into the top-20 for a lap 160 restart in 17th place. Two more cautions bunched the field up for double-file restarts making for great racing; but also causing more cautions.

A multi-car wreck on lap 180 in Turn 1 allowed Mears to line up 18th for the lap-187 restart. The green-flag battle to the finish resulted in three and four-wide racing on the large Pocono straightaways that blocked other competitors from improving track position.

Unfortunately, Mears was one of those caught behind and fell back to 25th when the checkered flag waved on lap 200. His finish allowed him to remain 21st in the standings; trailing 20th by 77 markers and 19th by 79.

His fellow RCR teammates Clint Bowyer, Kevin Harvick and Jeff Burton finished third, 12th and 21st, respectively.

Denny Hamlin won his first race of the season with Juan Pablo Montoya right behind him in second. Following Bowyer to the checkered flag was Sam Hornish in fourth and Kasey Kahne fifth.

Mears and team return to action next Sunday, Aug. 9 at the 11-turn road course of Watkins Glen International for the Heluva Good! Sour Cream Dips at The Glen. The 43-car field will take the green flag at 2 p.m. (EDT) with pre-race coverage beginning at 1 p.m. on ESPN TV. MRN Radio and Sirius XM NASCAR Radio Ch. 128 are providing the radio broadcast. Qualifying is slated for Friday at 3 p.m. on ESPN2 with radio coverage on MRN Radio and Sirius XM NASCAR Radio Ch. 128.

Casey Mears quotes – “Frustrating; just very frustrating is the way to describe our race here at Pocono. We went from one extreme to the other in regards to how we got through the different turns. The Jack Daniel’s Chevrolet was good at the start of a run, but just fell off the longer we ran. Mr. Jack’s Crew did their job on pit road; I just wish we had a better result.”