Catchfence

2009 NSCS Casey Mears - (Photo Credit: Sam Greenwood/Getty Images for NASCAR)

• This Week’s Jack Daniel’s Chevrolet at Richmond International Raceway … Casey Mears will pilot Chassis No. 275 from the Richard Childress Racing NASCAR Sprint Cup Series stable Saturday night in Richmond. This is a brand new Jack Daniel’s Chevrolet Impala SS that will be put through its first paces this weekend.
• Richmond Recap … In 12 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series starts at Richmond’s three-quarter mile, D-shaped oval, Mears has notched five top-20 efforts, including a pair of 11th-place finishes to call career bests. The Bakersfield, Calif., native has earned a 17.3 average starting spot but looks to improve on his 24.8 finishing average. He has led six laps, completed 94.1 percent of the laps run over those 12 races and earned just shy of $1 million in purse money.
• Escaping Talladega … Mears avoided a pair of near misses, including “the big one” that sent two of his Richard Childress Racing teammates to the garage for repairs, to escape Talladega Superspeedway with a respectable, but somewhat disappointing, 16th-place finish in last Sunday’s Aaron’s 499. He was leading a freight train of cars towards the front of the field with only three laps to go when an ill-timed bump draft from eventual winner Brad Keselowski got the Jack Daniel’s Chevrolet out of shape. Mears was forced to get out of the gas while he gathered his black and white No. 07 machine back up but, the blink of an eye it took to get the car settled down was enough to let the pack by.
• New Boss Calling the Shots … Todd Berrier and his crew will take over the Jack Daniel’s Racing team beginning this weekend at Richmond while Gil Martin and his team move over to RCR’s No. 29 Shell-Pennzoil team with driver Kevin Harvick. In addition to the crew chiefs, the transition includes car chiefs, engineers, shock specialists, engine tuners, tire specialists, mechanics, transporter drivers and over-the-wall pit crews. With the exception of the drivers and spotters, both teams will have a completely new look heading into “The Action Track.” Since being named crew chief of the No. 29 team in March of 2003, Berrier has earned eight victories at NASCAR’s highest level, all of them coming with Harvick, including the 2007 Daytona 500, 2007 NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race and the 2003 Allstate 400 at the Brickyard. Berrier previously led Harvick to the 2001 NASCAR Nationwide Series championship, the 2000 Nationwide Series Rookie of the Year award and seven NNS victories with RCR’s No. 2 team. He has been with RCR since 1994.
• Piling on the Points … Mears moved up to 21st in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series points following last weekend’s Aaron’s 499. The 31-year-old driver has climbed five spots in the standings over the last three races and now trails 20th-place and RCR teammate Harvick by a slim seven-point margin. At the same time, the veteran driver is just 107 markers behind Dale Earnhardt Jr., in 15th and 152 back from 12th-place Matt Kenseth.
• RCR at RIR … Richard Childress is tied for fourth with Bud Moore for car owner victories at Richmond with seven – five with Dale Earnhardt, one with Harvick and RCR’s most recent checkered flag at “The Action Track” when Clint Bowyer won last May. Additionally, in 107 starts at RIR, RCR boasts 29 top-five and 50 top-10 finishes with nine different drivers including Earnhardt, Bowyer, Jeff Burton, Jeff Green, Robby Gordon, Harvick, Ricky Rudd and Mike Skinner. Childress, a former driver on NASCAR’s senior circuit, contributed three of those top 10s from 1976-1978.
• Carry Me Back to Old Virginia … One member of Mr. Jack’s Crew hails from Virginia. Tire specialist Darren McDaniel was born in Roanoke, Va., and grew up in the Lebanon, Va., area.
• Casey Mears Live … On behalf of primary sponsor Jack Daniel’s, Mears will appear at RIR’s Pit Stop Club on Saturday, May 2 at 4 p.m. for a fan question and answer session. The Pit Stop Club is located near the midway, outside the front straightaway and is open to Pit Stop Club ticket holders only.
• Meet the Driver … Following his visit to the Pit Stop Club, Mears will sign autographs at the Jack Daniel’s souvenir trailer, located in RIR’s midway area outside turn 4, Saturday, May 2 at 4:30 p.m. A limited number of tickets will be available for autographs on a first come, first served basis due to time constraints.
  
• Up to Speed … Live coverage of the Crown Royal Presents the Russ Friedman 400 from Richmond International Raceway will take the green flag Saturday, May 2 beginning at 7 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time. The race will be televised live on FOX and broadcast worldwide on the Motor Racing Network and Sirius XM Satellite Radio. Qualifying for the 10th stop on the 36-race NASCAR Sprint Cup Series tour will be televised live on SPEED Friday, May 1 at 5:30 EDT. MRN and Sirius XM Satellite Radio will carry qualifying updates live.

CASEY MEARS QUOTES

On the surface, it looks like Richmond has been a struggle for you.

“We’ve struggled at Richmond but we’ve run well the in the past, too. It’s been kind of a hit or miss race track for me. I’ve run well but haven’t had the finishes to show for it. Obviously, RCR cars have been strong at Richmond. Clint (Bowyer) won the race last spring and Todd (crew chief Todd Berrier) won a pole and a race with Kevin (Harvick) at Richmond. It’s always encouraging to know you’re coming back with a team that’s had a package that works well at a particular race track. We’ve found that I like different things in a race car than maybe Clint or Kevin do, but I think as we progress as a group, we’ll be able to adapt a little quicker to each other. As we develop that trend, we’ll be able to take those packages and make those tweaks early, before we leave for the track, instead of starting with that package and trying to do it all in an hour-and-a-half of practice.”

Has there been one thing in particular that you can put your finger on that you’ve struggled with at Richmond or has it been a little of this and a little of that?

“Not really. We’ve had the car right there and been fast and when we didn’t, the results kind of speak for themselves. At times, we’ve had really good cars and that’s made it easy to run up front and other times we haven’t. That’s the biggest thing. We know we’ve got a good package to start with, so we should be close when we unload. The biggest thing that we’ve noticed this year is that you have to qualify well. We haven’t been qualifying like we need to. When you qualify well and get inside the top five, it’s a lot easier to maintain that throughout the whole race than it is to try and gain it later.”

You’re nine races into the season and you’re heading into Richmond with a new team. What are your thoughts about the recently announced changes at RCR?

“I’m excited to work with Todd and his guys. Those guys are, without a doubt, a championship-caliber team. They’ve been together a long time and won a lot of races. Todd is a very detail-oriented crew chief. He’s done his homework. I know he’s talked to a lot of my former crew chiefs, just trying to get their feedback, and figure out what I like so we can be successful right out of the gate. We don’t have a race under our belts yet, but I’m already really impressed with his attention to detail and his work ethic. At the same time, Richard has been in this sport for 40 years and there’s a reason for that. I know he doesn’t take big decisions like these lightly and without a lot of thought. I support his decision 100 percent and now it’s up to us to produce the results we all know the Jack Daniel’s Chevrolet is capable of.”

- Richard Childress Racing, Press Release