Casey Mears and No. 41 Target Dodge
Dodge/Save Mart 350 – Infineon Raceway Advance
Target Team Facts:
Standings: Casey Mears and the Target team held onto 25th place in the championship standings this week after finishing 21st at Michigan. Mears qualified second last weekend, his best effort of the season, and led the first seven laps of the race.
Road Course Success: Mears and the Target team finished seventh and fourth in the two road course events in 2004. Mears had the best finishing average of any NEXTEL Cup driver at the road courses last season.
West Coast Warriors: Aside from Bakersfield, Calif. native Mears, the No. 41 Target team has four other former west coast residents on the roster. Crew chief Jimmy Elledge grew up in northern California in the town of Redding, shock specialist for the Target Dodge Roger Parkinson is from San Diego, mechanic Jesse Sanders is from Coupeville, Wash., and jackman Shaun Peet is from across the border in Nanaimo, British Columbia.
Chassis: Crew chief Jimmy Elledge and the Target Team will be taking chassis #004 to the first road course event of the 2005 season. Mears piloted this chassis last year at Infineon Raceway to a seventh-place finish after qualifying 29th for the event.
Casey Mears Quotes:
On road course racing… “We had a really good Target Dodge at Michigan last week, and ran into some bad luck,” said Mears. “The good news is that the car was awesome and it was more than capable of running up front. Unfortunately, bad luck has been the theme this year.
“We ran really well at Sonoma last year and finished fourth at Watkins Glen, so I’m looking forward to going back to a road course. Jamie (McMurray), Scott (Pruett) and I all finished in the top 10 last year, and I’m looking to have a strong finish again. Every week I say we need to turn this season around and last week’s effort was a great start. Now we just need to put all the pieces together this weekend and get the top 10 we know we are capable of.”
Career-Best Start: First, twice: Pocono Raceway (July 30, 2004) and Indianapolis (August 7, 2004).
Career-Best Finish: Fourth, twice: Watkins Glen International (August 15, 2004) and Texas Motor Speedway (April 17, 2005).
