Casey Mears and No. 41 Target Dodge
American Revolution 400 – Richmond International Raceway Advance
Target Team Facts:
Richmond: Casey Mears and the Target Team have competed in four NEXTEL Cup events at Richmond International Raceway. Mears’ best finish at the .750-mile track is 28th which he did in his first Cup event at Richmond in May of 2003.
Standings: Mears and the Target team slipped five spots in the NEXTEL Cup standings after spending several laps behind the wall at Darlington Raceway to finish 39th. Mears now sits 25th in points, 247 points out of 10th.
Target House: Mears and his IRL Target Chip Ganassi Racing counterparts Scott Dixon, Darren Manning and Ryan Briscoe will make a special appearance at Target House to unveil the four winning helmet designs they have each chosen to wear in the Indianapolis 500 and the Coca-Cola 600 on May 29. Target House patients submitted their helmet designs and each driver will select and announce the winners at a special event at Target House, the home-away-from-home for families whose children are receiving life-saving treatment at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.
Chassis: Crew chief Jimmy Elledge and the Target Team will be taking chassis #502 to Richmond International Raceway this weekend. This will be the second time this chassis will see competition this season. Mears piloted chassis #502 in Phoenix in April where a part failure relegated him to a 39th-place finish.
Casey Mears Quote:
On Richmond... “We really need to get a good finish at Richmond this weekend. This track has not been kind to me and the Target Team. Every time it seemed like things were starting to go our way, something always happened. Last year we were caught up in an incident in the fall, and we broke an upper A-frame in May. We haven’t had a clean race at Richmond yet.
”Last weekend was tough at Darlington. I know the guys are working extremely hard preparing these cars, and it’s a shame that we can’t seem to put the finishes together that we need. This team is better than a 25th-place team. I know that we will work hard and try and put a solid run together this weekend. If we can run well this weekend, we have some really strong tracks coming up for us on the schedule.”
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).
