Mears Takes Top-10 Home from the Monster Mile

Race: Autism Speaks 400 presented by Heluva Good! Sour Cream Dips and Cheese - Date: May 31, 2009 - Location: Dover International Speedway – Dover, Del. - Start Position: 17th - Finish Position: Ninth - 
Points Position: 21st (moved up one position)

DOVER, Del -- Casey Mears and the No. 07 Jack Daniel’s Racing team bounced back strong after a tough outing the previous week to score a ninth-place finish in the Autism Speaks 400 presented by Heluva Good! Sour Cream Dips and Cheese at Dover International Speedway.

The team’s second top-10 finish of the 2009 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season moved Mr. Jack’s Crew up one position, from 22nd to 21st, in the season point standings after 13 races. At the same time, Mears was the top-finishing RCR driver, with teammates Clint Bowyer, Jeff Burton and Kevin Harvick finishing 11th, 16th and 17th, respectively.

Friday afternoon’s qualifying session found the No. 07 Jack Daniel’s Chevrolet Impala SS pulling onto the high-banked one-mile concrete racing surface as the fourth of 47 cars that would attempt to make Sunday’s 43-car field. The Bakersfield, Calif., native ran a quick lap of 23.213 seconds at an average speed of 155.086 mph. The time would stand as the 17th-quickest and placed the No. 07 on the inside of the ninth row for Sunday’s 400-lap feature.

Despite morning rain showers, it was all sunshine for the early Sunday afternoon start. The field took the green flag at 2:15 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time with the understanding that a NASCAR-mandated competition caution flag would wave after lap 30. Mears was 17th when he brought the black-and-white Impala SS to the attention of Mr. Jack’s Crew on lap 32, having told crew chief Todd Berrier the car was loose into and tight off of the corners. Air pressure adjustments to a fresh set of Goodyear tires, a chassis adjustment and a refilled fuel cell later, Mears maintained his position for the lap-36 restart.

Berrier decided to bring Mears back down pit road when the caution flag waved just eight laps later. A number of other front-runners stayed on the track while the Jack Daniel’s Chevrolet came back down pit road for four more fresh tires and a top-off of the fuel cell. Mears was 23rd for the restart on lap 49 but Berrier had a plan.

Mears was running 20th on lap 110 when the front-runners began making green-flag pit stops. With extra laps to run because of the previous out-of-sequence stop, the entire Jack Daniel’s team hoped for a caution flag. Those positive thoughts were realized when, on lap 118 with Mears running eighth, the fourth of the day’s 10 yellow flags slowed the field. The No. 07 came down pit road two laps later and, after service that included a rubber into the right-rear spring, was lined up 10th for the restart on lap 124.

Over the next 175 laps, Mears ran in the top 20, never lower than 18th. He was 13th with 70 laps remaining when the day’s eighth caution slowed the field. Mr. Jack’s Crew picked up a spot on pit road and Mears restarted in 12th on lap 336. He battled his way into the top 10 over the next 35 laps and picked up another spot over the final 30 laps to bring home the No. 07 in the ninth position.

Jimmie Johnson earned his second victory of the 2009 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season and fourth overall at Dover International Speedway. The rest of the top five consisted of Tony Stewart, Greg Biffle, Matt Kenseth and Kurt Busch.

The NASCAR Sprint Cup Series moves to Pocono (Pa.) Raceway this weekend. Flag-to-flag coverage of the Pocono 500 will take the green flag Sunday, June 7, beginning at 12:30 p.m. EDT. The race will be televised live on TNT and broadcast on the Motor Racing Network and Sirius XM Satellite Radio. Qualifying for the 14th points-paying race on the 2009 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series schedule will be telecast live on SPEED Friday, June 5 beginning at 3:30 p.m. EDT.

CASEY MEARS QUOTES

"We're really happy to get another top 10. We all (RCR) struggled at Charlotte last week so it was good to come to Dover this week and run like we did. The Jack Daniel's guys didn't panic after Charlotte. They knew Dover was a different race track and they hung on to their game plan and it really worked for us. The Jack guys did a great job all day on pit road. We had one run where we lost a lot of positions. These things are so temperamental -- we raised the track bar just a half a round and it just went horrible. But, we bounced back and had a good solid day."