Casey Mears and No. 42 Texaco/Havoline Dodge
Sharpie 500 – Bristol Motor Speedway Advance
Texaco/Havoline Team Facts:
NEXTEL Cup
Standings: Casey Mears and the Texaco/Havoline team gained two positions in the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup standings with their 16th-place finish at Michigan International Speedway. Mears and the team are now 17th in points, and sit 32 points out of 15th. Following the Michigan race in 2005, Mears was 23rd in NEXTEL Cup points.
Bristol: The .533-mile short track has not been kind to Mears in his three years of NEXTEL Cup racing. Mears is looking for his first top-10 finish at the track on Saturday night. His best finish at the bullring is 21st in his rookie year, his only lead-lap finish. His best qualifying effort came last fall when he started the 500-lap race from the 14th position. He did take the green flag from the 12th spot this past March but qualifying was rained out so the field was set by the 2005 Owner’s Points. Mears was running in the top 15 in March on lap 200 before two on-track incidents forced him into the pits for repairs. He ended up falling two laps down and taking the checkered flag in 25th.
Chassis: Crew chief Donnie Wingo and the Texaco/Havoline team will take chassis #214 for this weekend’s Sharpie 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway. Mears piloted this short-track chassis in the Food City 500 at Bristol in March when he finished 25th.
Celebrating 20 Years: The 2007 season will mark Texaco/Havoline’s 20th year as a sponsor in NASCAR. From Davey Allison to Mears, Texaco/Havoline has a rich history in the sport. To commemorate its history, Texaco/Havoline is creating a one-of-a-kind book filled with photos and stories submitted by fans, drivers and crew members who have been involved in its racing program. Fans can submit their favorite story, interesting tale or special moment in their life involving the Texaco/Havoline race team at www.texacohavoline42.com or by calling 800-518-0028 through October 8.
Casey Mears Quotes:
“I keep waiting to have a good finish at Bristol. It started out as a tough track for me, but now I just seem to find trouble during the race. Donnie and I both know that in order for me to finish in the top 10, I need to start up front. The speed has been there to run well and we’ve never had a problem of running competitive lap times in race trim. My problem has been qualifying. There’s obviously a fast way of getting around Bristol during qualifying that I’ve struggled a little bit with in the past. It gets me back in the pack and we get caught up in things that really aren’t our fault. We are going to focus on qualifying a little more this weekend so we can try and get that top-10 starting spot and avoid some of those incidents.
“The first part of the race was going well for us in the spring. I started 12th and was able to run in the top 15 for the first 200 laps. Then, I got caught up in an incident with the No. 49 car and the race went downhill from there. We came in to fix the fenders and it put us back to 30th, and once we were back there I couldn’t seem to avoid any of the on-track wrecks.”
