GFS Marketplace 400 - Rookie Saturday Quotes

RAYBESTOS® ROOKIE CASEY MEARS IN THE NO. 41 TARGET DODGE IS THE ONLY CURRENT WINSTON CUP DRIVER TO HAVE COMPETED IN A SERIES THAT EMPLOYED A FULL TIME SAFTEY CREW AT EVERY EVENT. HE COMPETED IN THE CART SERIES IN 2000 AND 2001.

DOES IT MAKE A DIFFERENCE TO YOU AS A DRIVER TO HAVE A FULL TIME SAFETY CREW? "I think so. If I would have never experienced it, I wouldn't know any better. I ran CART with the Indy Lights and CART for four or five years and I had my share of crashes. It was reassuring, I guess, to know that the guys on the safety crew were almost like the guys on your team because you knew them. You knew them really well. If you are hurting bad and you see someone that you know coming up to you it sure makes a big difference compared to someone that you don't know. This year I've crashed and sometimes they are a little bit confused because maybe they don't do it very often or what the deal is. I think that they have done a good job. I think that having a road crew would be doing an excellent job. There's always room for improvement in every department in racing, whether it's from the teams to the safety crew. Even CART always has improvements that they can do more of but those guys are probably the most responsive, the most comfortable that I've ever felt with a safety crew. If NASCAR did something like that I would definitely be all for it because I think it's better for sure."

WHAT'S THE MOST IMPORTANT THING FOR THE SAFETY TEAM TO DO WHEN THEY ARRIVE AT THE CAR? "It probably depends on the severity of the accident. I mean, if you are on fire, get your ass out of there, know what I mean? If you are not on fire, stop and give you a few seconds, ask if you are okay, and give him a little bit of time to collect yourself instead of grabbing you. That's what a lot of guys do; that's the last thing that you want. A lot of times I know when I've crashed here as soon as you get out of the car the first thing they do is grab you and like try to help you to walk and if anything it's harder to walk because they are hanging on to you. They don't pay attention to what's going on. When you're okay they need to let you be okay and when you're not okay they need to help you. I don't know; it just depends. That's not my job. I don't know what the best thing is to do at that time. I just know that guys are there trained to do it on a week in and week out basis are probably a lot better than guys that do it once or twice a year. I've crashed a couple of times and the safety team has been fairly quick. I have crashed in CART and be sliding backwards still and see the truck coming out to get me. I think the guys that do it on a weekly basis are definitely going to be better than guys that do it two or three times a year, regardless of what goes on. I know that in CART they had several issues with a lot of the tracks because the tracks wanted to use their crews. There was a deal at California Speedway one year where the track and CART got into a very big argument and they held practice because the track wanted to use their safety crew and CART is like 'No way, we're going to use ours. We know these guys.' It's definitely a big issue and it's not just NASCAR. It's going to be a lot of these tracks that employ a lot of these people that comes to the race weekends and use their local people that helps their local people make a little more money. You can't just look at NASCAR and go 'Man, these guys aren't doing all they can do.' I think they are trying to do the best they can do and work with all the tracks and everything else. None of us know all the issues behind all of it but for me, definitely, if they could have a crew that was there on a week in and week out basis I'd feel a lot more comfortable with the safety crew for sure."

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