Auto Club 500 - Casey Mears Notes

Casey Mears and No. 41 Target Dodge
Auto Club 500 – California Speedway Advance

Target Team Facts:

· Championship Standings: Bakersfield, California native Casey Mears and the Target Team survived a wild race at Talladega Superspeedway to earn Mears’ best finish of eighth at a superspeedway. Mears moved up to 18th in the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup standings, just 159 points out the top 10.

· California Facts: Mears has driven in four different series in two styles of cars at California Speedway. He has raced in CART, Indy Lights, Busch and NEXTEL Cup Series cars at what he considers his home track in Fontana. His most memorable race at California Speedway came in his CART Series debut when he ran a third car for Team Rahal and finished fourth in 2000.

· Chassis: Crew chief Jimmy Elledge and the Target Team are bringing chassis #402 to California Speedway this weekend. This has been the most successful chassis in the No. 41 stable. Chassis #402 captured career-best finishes of seventh for Mears at Las Vegas and Texas and led 37 laps at Atlanta before the motor expired.

· Did you know? Shock specialist Roger Parkinson on the No. 41 Target Team used to build shocks for Casey’s father Roger when he raced in the off-road series. Parkinson is an El Cajon, California native that built shocks for off-road teams when his employer, the Bilstein Corporation, decided to get involved in NASCAR and sent him to North Carolina.

Casey Mears Quotes:

On California… “I am so excited about Fontana,” said Mears. “We are taking the same Target Dodge that ran so well at Texas and Las Vegas and was running up front at Atlanta. It is by far the best speedway car I have ever run. California is very similar to Las Vegas, and that is the type of track we seem to be excelling at this year.

“Being a California native makes this a very special race for me. Anytime you get to go home and race in front of fans from your home state is a great feeling. It generates extra excitement. I’ve competed at Fontana several times and just love the track. I haven’t had much success there in a stock car over the past few years, but hopefully that will change this weekend.”

Career-Best Start: Fourth at Chicagoland Speedway on July 13, 2003
Career-Best Finish: Seventh, twice, at Las Vegas on March 7, 2004 and Texas on April 4, 2004.