Casey James Mears (born March 12, 1978) is an American professional off-road and stock car racing driver. He currently competes part-time in the NASCAR Cup Series, driving the No. 66 Ford Mustang Dark Horse for Garage 66, and the No. 62 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 for Beard Motorsports. He has raced in IndyCar, NASCAR's three national series, including fifteen seasons in the Cup Series, SCORE International, and the Stadium Super Trucks. A former winner of the Coca-Cola 600, Mears is a member of the Mears racing family as the nephew of four-time Indianapolis 500 winner Rick Mears and the son of IndyCar and off-road veteran Roger Mears.
Early career and open-wheel racing
Mears is a native of Bakersfield, California. After racing in go-karts for a season in 1991, Mears began competing in the SuperLites Off-Road Series in 1992, where he posted several top-three finishes. He moved to sprint cars in 1994 and finished third in the Jim Russell USAC Triple Crown Championship, with a win at Mesa Marin Raceway. The next season, he won the championship in the USAC series.
In 1996, Mears made his Dayton Indy Lights debut at the Cleveland Grand Prix and finished eighth. The following year, he competed full-time in the Indy Lights championship and in 1999 finished second, losing by fourteen points. He became just the fourth driver in Indy Lights series history to complete every lap in a single season. Mears continued to compete in the Indy Lights in 2000 and won his first race at the Grand Prix of Houston meeting in October.
After testing Indy Cars for multiple teams in 2000, Mears was offered a chance to drive a third entry for Team Rahal at California Speedway in October. After qualifying fifteenth and leading ten laps, he posted a career-best fourth finish in his CART Series debut. He ran three IRL events at the start of the 2001 season and attempted to qualify for the 2001 Indianapolis 500, but ultimately did not make it. He ended the season by filling in for injured Champ Car driver Alex Zanardi, posting one top-ten finish in four starts.
Mears had five CART starts, with one top-five finish, and three IRL starts, with no top-five finishes.
Mears made his NASCAR debut in the Busch Series in 2001 at Homestead-Miami Speedway, driving the No. 66 car for Cicci-Welliver Racing. He started 21st and finished 28th. When the team was sold to Wayne Jesel the next season, Mears drove for them full-time, finishing 21st in points with two top-ten finishes.
To the surprise of many, he was selected by Chip Ganassi Racing to drive the No. 41 Target Dodge in 2003. In his rookie season, he finished 35th in the final points standings after failing to finish in the top ten in any race. Throughout 2003, Mears drove a number of ARCA races for Ganassi, winning three times, once at Michigan, and sweeping both Pocono races. He drove the No. 41 Cup car for two additional seasons and won two poles in 2004.
Mears came close to quite a lot of victories during this period. He led late in the 2004 Sirius at the Glen but got passed with twelve laps to go and finished fourth. At Homestead in 2005, Mears controlled the final 100 laps of the Ford 400, but after a yellow flag with sixteen laps to go erased his one second lead, Mears had to make a pit stop, thus forfeiting the lead and with it, the win.
During the 2005 season, it was announced Mears would move to a separate car for Ganassi with Home123 sponsorship, with the No. 41 to be piloted by Reed Sorenson. The Home123 sponsorship fell through, and he instead moved to the No. 42 Texaco/Havoline Dodge for Ganassi, replacing the departing Jamie McMurray.
Mears started off 2006 with a then-best career finish of second, passing Ryan Newman at the line as Mears' future teammate Jimmie Johnson won the 2006 Daytona 500.
Hendrick Motorsports (2007–08)
On June 6, 2006, Mears announced that he was leaving Chip Ganassi Racing at the end of the season to join Hendrick Motorsports for the 2007 season, to replace the departing Brian Vickers. On July 8, 2006, he finally won his first NASCAR race, a Busch Series race at Chicagoland Speedway, coasting to the finish after running out of fuel.
For the 2007 season, Mears assumed driving duties for the No. 25 Hendrick Chevrolet, with co-primary sponsorships from the National Guard of the United States and GMAC. On May 27, 2007, he won the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte, his first (and only to date) career Nextel Cup victory. Once again, Mears secured the win with a fuel gamble, taking the lead with five laps remaining when most of the other lead lap cars stopped for fuel. Mears stretched his fuel to the finish, running out moments after the checkered flag.
In 2008, Mears moved to the Alan Gustafson-led No. 5 Kellogg's/Carquest Chevrolet Impala previously driven by Kyle Busch. After going winless, Mears was released by Hendrick and replaced by veteran Mark Martin.
Richard Childress Racing (2009)
On August 23, 2008, Mears was announced as the driver of Richard Childress Racing's No. 07 Jack Daniel's Chevrolet Impala SS. The previous driver of the car, Clint Bowyer, would drive the team's new No. 33 General Mills Chevrolet Impala SS. In his first season at RCR, Mears notched two top-ten finishes. After Mears struggled during the first seven races of the year, Richard Childress switched the crew chiefs for Harvick and Mears' cars, hoping for a better performance from the two drivers. The switch seemed to work for both parties.
On October 21, 2009, it was announced that Mears would be getting his third crew chief of the season, starting at Talladega. Todd Berrier would be moving to the No. 31 team in place of Scott Miller. Doug Randolph took over as the crew chief on the No. 07. This move was made primarily because the future of the No. 07 was uncertain, and Childress wanted to keep Berrier in the family. After the switch, Mears struggled with his new crew chief and had the best finish of nineteenth at Homestead. Mears was released by Richard Childress Racing following the 2009 season.