With 490 NASCAR Cup Series starts, Casey Mears is just 10 shy of joining the exclusive 500 start club. Just 47 drivers in NASCAR history have eclipsed the mark, with the only active drivers being Kyle Busch, Denny Hamlin, Joey Logano, Brad Keselowski and Michael McDowell.
● Mears won the prestigious Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway on Memorial Day weekend in 2007. Of the roughly 3,000 drivers who have started NASCAR Cup Series races in the sport’s 77-year history, only 206 have ever won a race, placing Mears in elite company.
● Mears’ success at Daytona International Speedway is well-documented. Aside from a host of Top 5 and Top 10 finishes, the Bakersfield, CA, native has completed an impressive 4,234 of 4,528 laps at a track known for its mayhem. He’s widely regarded as one of the top restrictor-plate racers in the business, and his 93.5% lap completion rate at the 2.5-mile, high-banked facility is a testament to his patience, skill and quick reflexes.
● Mears and team owner Carl Long are former competitors, with Long experiencing considerable longevity in NASCAR, logging over three decades in the sport as a driver and team owner.
● Mears heads to Martinsville with primary sponsorship from S.I. Yachts, one of the world’s oldest and largest dealers for both Viking Yachts and Valhalla Boatworks. S.I. Yachts is owned by the Germain Motor Company. After debuting with Mears at Martinsville in March, Acrisure will continue its partnership and is featured as a major associate sponsor.
● In a sport steeped in history, the Germain family and Casey Mears share their own. Mears wheeled the No. 13 NASCAR Cup Series entry for Germain Racing from 2010 – 2016. He has remained close with his former boss, Bob Germain, making this a natural and nostalgic partnership.
By the Numbers
● The No. 66 S.I. Yachts Ford Mustang is not the first car Mears has driven with the number 66. He previously wheeled the No. 66 Pioneer-WorldCom Honda-Reynard for Mo Nunn Racing in the CART FedEx Championship Series (now the NTT INDYCAR SERIES), and the No. 66 Phillips 66/Injex Chevrolet for Cicci-Welliver Racing in the NASCAR Xfinity Series.
Casey Mears, Driver of the No. 66 S.I. Yachts Ford Mustang Dark Horse
What does it mean to have your former boss, Bob Germain, step up to partner with you on your journey to 500 Cup starts?
“It’s really special running with Bob and having his and his family’s support for Daytona. I think when I ended up at Germain Racing in 2010, I needed them and they needed me. I was at a point in my career where I wasn’t sure which direction to take, but I had accumulated a lot of experience and knowledge from working with elite organizations and had the tools to help them grow. When you collectively go through something like that, growing a Cup team from the beginning, it creates close relationships with the people around you. I was with Germain Racing for nearly seven seasons, so working with them to build the program from a part-time effort to a competitive, full-time program was super rewarding. But you navigate a lot of challenges together, which resulted in a special, lifetime relationship between Bob and me. For him to step up now to help me hit the 500 start mark is incredibly generous, and I lack the words to quantify my appreciation. He means a lot to me, and I’m thankful we get to do this together.”
You’ve completed 93.5% of your laps in your 26 starts at Daytona, a restrictor-plate track known for inflicting damage on cars in bulk. What is it that makes you consistent at the high-speed 2.5-mile tri-oval?
“We all know Daytona can be unpredictable, but over time, they’ve constantly changed the rules there, so I think being able to adapt to different packages and the change in the style of racing is beneficial. Early in my career, I got caught up in a lot of incidents, but the longer you’re around it, you’re able to start reading the room better and get a feel for if the drivers around you are getting antsy, and you sense the potential for a crash. You’re able to quickly put yourself in a better situation, and sometimes that’s dropping to the rear of the field, which is often a prevailing strategy at the plate races, and a smarter decision. The key is to make it to the end of the race, make your way to the front and have a shot at it. I haven’t been in the pack for a while, so it’s going to be interesting to see how it plays out this weekend, but hopefully it all comes back to me like it did at Martinsville.”
Do you have any specific goals as you return to Daytona, a track where you’ve experienced past success?
“It’s really going to depend on how the car feels. I have lofty goals, thanks to my past experience, so if we can get the car halfway decent, we can hopefully get up front and get a really solid finish, or even a win if favorable circumstances present themselves. The caveat is that there will be zero practice this weekend, so my qualifying laps will be the only track time I get before being in the middle of the pack. I will need the opening laps of the race just to get a sense of how my car will draft with the other cars around me. In the past, I’ve taken cars at Daytona that have struggled with single-car speed and got to the front and got a good result, but I’ve also had a really good car and got caught up at the wrong place and wrong time, so you never know, but I’m always optimistic. Carl (Long) was able to get us a good Roush-Yates engine under the hood and a strong pit crew, and the guys in the Garage 66 shop have put together a good car, so I’m excited to get on the track. As long as we do our job and put everything together properly, there’s no reason we can’t run up front and compete for a win.”
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