PREVIEW: CASEY MEARS (NO. 25 NATIONAL GUARD/GMAC CHEVROLET IMPALA SS)
VENUE: BRISTOL MOTOR SPEEDWAY (.533-MILE OVAL)
CIRCUIT: NASCAR NEXTEL CUP SERIES (RACE FIVE OF 36)
EVENT: SUNDAY, MARCH 25, 2007 (500 LAPS, 266.5 MILES)

BRISTOL RECORD: Casey Mears owns three consecutive top-15 NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series qualifying efforts at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway. Last August, he qualified 11th and finished 17th at the half-mile concrete oval, both Bristol career bests for the 29-year-old driver.

INTRODUCING THE IMPALA SS: Mears will pilot the No. 25 National Guard/GMAC Chevrolet Impala SS at Bristol Motor Speedway as the Car of Tomorrow makes its competition debut. This weekend marks the first of 16 events in 2007 that will feature NASCAR's newest race car.

CHASSIS 408 FOR MEARS: Crew chief Darian Grubb has selected Hendrick Motorsports Chassis No. 408 for this weekend's Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway. The car is new, but it has seen Bristol before -- Mears tested Chassis No. 408 at the infamous bullring earlier this month.

HENDRICK LOOKING FOR 200TH NASCAR WIN: Car owner Rick Hendrick now has 199 combined NASCAR victories: 151 at the NEXTEL Cup level, 23 in the Busch Series and 25 in the Craftsman Truck Series. The total includes a 1983 Busch Series win by the late Dale Earnhardt at Lowe's Motor Speedway in a car co-owned by Hendrick and Robert Gee.

TESTING, TESTING: On Tuesday, Mears and his No. 25 National Guard/GMAC team tested at Caraway Speedway in Asheboro, N.C., to prepare for the April 1 NEXTEL Cup event at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway, which also will feature the Car of Tomorrow.

TOMORROW IS TODAY: The Car of Tomorrow will race in competition for the first time this weekend in Bristol, Tenn., but the future of motor sports was on stage earlier this week in Philadelphia. On Monday evening, the Urban Youth Racing School held its eighth annual student awards dinner there, and Mears, driver of the No. 25 National Guard/GMAC Chevrolet, was on hand to help with the festivities. The Urban Youth Racing School fosters careers in motor sports for inner-city students through educational programs and internship opportunities. Mears was joined at the event by Rick Wagoner, the chairman and CEO of General Motors, as well as NASCAR president Mike Helton, Hendrick Motorsports teammate Kyle Busch and Oakland Raiders receiver Randy Moss.

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MEARS, CASEY MEARS: Casey Mears will greet fans and sign autographs at 9:45 a.m. local time on Sunday at the No. 25 National Guard/GMAC souvenir hauler outside Bristol Motor Speedway.

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CASEY MEARS, DRIVER OF THE NO. 25 NATIONAL GUARD/GMAC CHEVROLET: (ON HIS INITIAL IMPRESSIONS OF THE IMPALA SS.) "I don't want to sound like I'm complaining because everybody's kind of dealing with the same thing this weekend, and we're all going to race (the Car of Tomorrow). But I guess as a driver, it's a little disappointing because the last time we were here you could really hustle it around the track, and now you're kind of on your toes because the car just doesn't stick as well."

MEARS: (HOW WOULD YOU RATE YOUR SEASON SO FAR?) "It's been more frustrating than disappointing. At Daytona and Las Vegas, we got caught up in wrecks that weren't ours and that cost us. And we've got a lot of changes to deal with this year -- new driver, new crew chief and now a new car. I want to win just as badly as everybody else and put up big results right away, but we've got to take it one step at a time and build to that. We just need to keep working hard and stay focused on getting better every week. We've got a great team in place."

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DARIAN GRUBB, CREW CHIEF OF THE NO. 25 NATIONAL GUARD/GMAC CHEVROLET: (ON THE COMPETITION DEBUT OF THE IMPALA SS AT BRISTOL.) "The Impala SS will be interesting to deal with at the race track with our first experience back on bump stops in many years. Just dealing with the inspection process and the different parts of the new car will make for an interesting weekend. Our No. 25 National Guard/GMAC Chevy team is really excited about going to the race track with the new challenges that come with the Impala SS, and I think we have an advantage on the competition with all of the resources we have at Hendrick Motorsports and the time and hard work everyone here has devoted to the development of the car."