Food City 500 - Casey Mears Notes

Casey Mears and No. 41 Target Dodge
Food City 500 – Bristol Motor Speedway Advance

Target Team Facts:

· Championship Standings: The Target Team rallied back from falling a lap down in 30th position to finish 15th at Darlington last weekend. The top-15 finish moved Casey Mears from 19th to 17th in the NEXTEL Cup standings, just 85 point out of the NASCAR Top 10.

· Bristol Facts: Mears looks to improve on his best finish at Bristol Motor Speedway of 21st and also his qualifying effort this weekend. The team had to use a provisional in both races at the 0.533-mile track last season. He finished 32nd in the Food City 500 in 2003.

· Chassis: Crew chief Jimmy Elledge and the Target Team are bringing chassis #108 to Bristol this weekend. Mears piloted chassis #108 to a 21st-place finish at Rockingham earlier this season after qualifying the car 14th for the race.

· What a difference a year can make… Mears has improved his starting spot and finishing position in every race this season except for his finish in Atlanta. However, he was running eighth in Atlanta before a blown motor ended his top-10 run with 23 laps to go.

Casey Mears Quotes:

On Bristol… “Bristol is the type of track that if I can finish the race with all the fenders on the Target Dodge, I probably finished well,” said Mears. “Last year I destroyed the car early on in the spring race, but came back in the fall and ran as high as second. I learned a lot over those two races, but the most important thing was patience and that is tough to find at Bristol.

“It is by far the most physically and mentally challenging track on the circuit. You try and stay clear minded while your body is taking a beating. You have a spotter in your ear trying to maneuver you through traffic, Jimmy (Elledge) asking what is going on with the car while you’re weighing scenarios in your mind about how to get around the guy in front of you. There is so much going on and there is no time to make the wrong judgment call. There are no little mistakes at Bristol, the slightest error turns into a huge incident.”

Career-Best Start: Fourth at Chicagoland Speedway on July 13, 2003
Career-Best Finish: Seventh at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on March 7, 2004