Casey Mears Daytona 500 Event Preview 

No. 07 Jack Daniel’s Chevrolet Impala SS - Event Preview Fact Sheet - Event/Date: Daytona 500 – Feb. 15, 2009
Venue: Daytona International Speedway – Daytona Beach, Fla.

* This Week’s Jack Daniel’s Chevrolet at Daytona International Speedway … Casey Mears will pilot Chassis No. 237 from the Richard Childress Racing NASCAR Sprint Cup Series stable in the 51st running of the Daytona 500. Built new for 2008, this is the same Jack Daniel’s Chevrolet Impala SS Mr. Jack’s Crew raced to 12th-place finishes last fall at Kansas Speedway and Lowe’s Motor Speedway. The Gil Martin-led team also unloaded this car at Atlanta Motor Speedway last October, where Clint Bowyer finished 20th. Bowyer also drove this Chevy Impala SS last season to 10th- and 19th-place finishes at Auto Club Speedway. This is also the same car Martin & Co. raced to a sixth-place finish last March at Atlanta and to a 10th-place finish last April at Texas Motor Speedway. Since then, this Jack Daniel’s racer has been converted from its original downforce configuration into a superspeedway car. 

* There’s a New Kid in Town … After a four-year tenure with Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates and spending the last two seasons at Hendrick Motorsports, Mears comes to RCR where he takes over the seat of the Jack Daniel’s machine. In six previous seasons on NASCAR’s senior circuit, Mears has notched one win, three poles, 12 top-five and 42 top-10 finishes. In 216 races, the 1999 Indy Lights championship runner-up has recorded a 21.2 average starting position, a 22nd-place average finish and led 385 laps. 

* Daytona by the Numbers … In 12 previous starts on Daytona’s legendary high banks, Mears has a second-place finish to call a career best. The 30-year-old driver started 14th and went on to record a runner-up finish at the 2006 Daytona 500. Over those same 12 starts, the seventh-year Sprint Cup Series veteran has notched one top-five and a pair of top-10 finishes at the “World Center of Racing.” He has logged a 22.1 average start, a 21.9 average finish, completed 1,933 of 2,076 laps (93.1 percent) and earned just shy of $3 million in purse money. 

* The Fast Way Around … While serving as Kevin Harvick’s crew chief at the July 2002 race at DIS, Martin captured the with a fast lap of 48.638 seconds (185.041 mph). 

* RCR Rocks Daytona … Dating back to 1986, RCR has won seven poles and owns 23 total victories at DIS including Kevin Harvick’s dramatic win in the 2007 season-opening Daytona 500. Additionally, RCR won 10 straight (1990-1999) qualifying races with Dale Earnhardt. All totaled, RCR has won six Bud Shootouts, 13 qualifying races, two Coke Zero 400s and two Daytona 500s. Dale Earnhardt Jr. also won the February 2002 NASCAR Nationwide Series race at Daytona driving a car fielded by RCR and Dale Earnhardt Inc., and Harvick won the 2007 Nationwide Series opener at DIS in RCR’s No. 21 Chevrolet. 

* Catching Up With Casey … Mears will be available inside the DIS media center on Wed., Feb. 11 at 1:15 p.m. to meet with and field questions from members of the gathered press. 

* Casey Mears Live … Mears will sign autographs at the Jack Daniel’s souvenir trailer located in the DIS display area outside Turn 4 on Sun., Feb. 15 at 11:30 a.m. Autographs will be available on a limited basis due to time constraints. 

* Get the Total Experience … Mears will appear at the Jack Daniel’s Experience Sun., Feb. 15 at Noon. The Jack Daniel’s Experience is located in the display area, outside Turn 4, on speedway property. The Jack Daniel’s Experience is a 53-foot tractor- trailer filled with artifacts, state-of-the art video monitors, sound system and graphics to give race fans a taste of Lynchburg (pop. 361), Tenn. and the Distillery. The Jack Daniel’s Experience will be open Thurs., Feb. 12 from 9 a.m. – 2 p.m., Fri., Feb. 13 from 11 a.m. – 7 p.m., Sat., Feb. 14 from 8 a.m. – 1 p.m. and Sun., Feb. 15 from 8 a.m. – 3:30 p.m. 

* Catch the Action … The 51st running of the Daytona 500 will be televised live on FOX Sun., Feb. 15, beginning at 3 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. The first of 36 points-paying races on the 2009 NASCAR Sprint Cup schedule can also be heard live on the Motor Racing Network and Sirius/XM Satellite Radio. The Gatorade Duel at Daytona 150-mile qualifying races will take the green flag Thurs., Feb. 13 at 2 p.m. EST, and will be broadcast live on SPEED, MRN and Sirius/XM Satellite Radio. The Twin 150s will re-air on SPEED the same night at 9 p.m. EST. Qualifying for the Daytona 500 will be broadcast live on FOX, MRN and Sirius/XM Satellite Radio on Sun., Feb. 8 beginning at 1 p.m. EST.

>CASEY MEARS QUOTES

How important is it for you to get out of the box quickly?

“It’s always very important to have a good finish at Daytona. I saw that last year. I crashed, running third, at the end of the race with, like, six laps to go. I got upside down the next week at California and, all of a sudden, we’re 300 points behind before we ever got started. Your first five races in this series are very important. You have to finish those races. Everybody wants to win but the key is to finish well in all five of those races. It lays a good platform and allows you to focus on the remainder of the season without having to play catch-up. That’s what the Jack Daniel’s team has to focus on. I know RCR, as a whole, has done a very good job at completing all the laps and finishing every race. That’s what we need to focus on.”

What do you remember about finishing second in the 2006 Daytona 500?

“I wish I had one more spot. I was kind of forced into my decision at the end of that race. I had a good run. I didn’t have the run to get by the two leaders so I had a decision to make about who I was going to push. I picked Jimmie (Johnson). He’s a good friend of mine so I helped him out. It was close and it felt good to get second but it never feels all that good to finish second. I’ve got high expectations with my new team. I want a Daytona 500 win under my belt.”

Do you think this year’s 500 will be more wide open because of the lack of testing?

“At the end of last year, RCR ran the No. 33 quite a bit and felt like they made some big gains, so returning with the success they had last year and feeling like they’ve improved on that, I feel good about Daytona.”

What kind of feeling do you get starting the Daytona 500?

“It’s a ton of mixed feelings. Obviously, you’re flat excited about getting to go racing again. At the same time, there’s no place like Daytona. I think the excitement builds leading up to the race. As soon as the flag drops, you’re right back to where you were last year and you’re just racing. But, with everything that goes on around Daytona, it seems like it gets to be a bigger show each year so there’s a lot of excitement and build-up leading into the race. At the end of the day, when the green flag drops, you just focus in on your job.”

What would it mean for you to win at Daytona? ”It would be huge. It’s funny because Indianapolis is always a big goal of mine to win and still is -- it’s still a huge race to win. Daytona has slowly become more and more important to me as I go on. It’s hard coming in as an open-wheel guy and looking at Daytona as the biggest race in the world because I’ve always viewed Indianapolis as the biggest race in the world. Over time, I have learned to understand and appreciate what this place is all about and it means more and more every year to win at this place. I’ve been able to meet a lot of the guys, like Cale Yarborough and David Pearson -- they come to some of the drivers meetings and you learn more of the history and what’s actually been done at this place. Every time I come back, I appreciate it more and more and it means more to win.”