PREVIEW: CASEY MEARS (NO. 5 CHEEZ-IT/CARQUEST CHEVROLET)
VENUE: TEXAS MOTOR SPEEDWAY (1.5-MILE TRI-OVAL)
CIRCUIT: NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES (RACE 7 OF 36)
EVENT: APRIL 6, 2008 (334 LAPS, 501 MILES)

MEARS IN TEXAS: In eight starts at Texas Motor Speedway, Casey Mears has recorded two top-five finishes and four top-10s. He has led a total of 38 laps, all during the two races in 2005.

NO. 5 AT TEXAS: Crew chief Alan Gustafson has led the Kellogg's/CARQUEST team to two top-five finishes at Texas since 2005. Last November, the team led a race-high 153 laps before finishing fourth.

FIRST TOP-10: The Kellogg's/CARQUEST team earned its first top-10 finish of the 2008 season Sunday at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway. Mears turned a 39th-place starting position into a seventh-place finish, which moved him to 27th in the driver standings. At this point in 2007, Mears had notched one top-10 finish (Bristol, Tenn.) and was 33rd. Mears finished the 2007 season ranked 15th.

THE BIG CHEESE: Cheez-It, the world's largest-selling cheese cracker, will adorn the hood of the No. 5 Chevrolet this weekend. "The Big Cheese" will make its debut this Sunday and decorate the hood of the No. 5 Chevy for four races this season. The Cheez-It/CARQUEST Chevy finished third the last time it raced, which was last September at the Auto Club Speedway of Southern California.

HENDRICK AT TEXAS: In 14 races at Texas Motor Speedway, Rick Hendrick's teams have posted top-five finishes in 11 events and top-10 finishes in 13. Overall, the organization has recorded two wins, 13 top-five finishes and 21 top-10s at the track.

TOP-10 STREAK: All four Hendrick Motorsports drivers finished in the top 10 last week at Martinsville Speedway, improving the organization's top-10 streak to 71 straight races. The last time a Hendrick driver wasn't in the top 10 was April 9, 2006 at Texas Motor Speedway. Finishing 11th, Jimmie Johnson was Hendrick's top performer that day.

TEXAS CHASSIS: Crew chief Alan Gustafson has chosen Hendrick Motorsports Chassis No. 418 for Sunday's race at Texas. Mears raced this particular Chevrolet Impala SS at Las Vegas Motor Speedway earlier this season and recorded a 13th-place finish.

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CHEVY THUNDER: Casey Mears will be one of several Chevrolet drivers at Chevy Thunder at Stockyards Station in Fort Worth, Texas, on Friday evening. The drivers in attendance will meet with the media, participate in a question-and-answer session on stage and sign autographs. Visit http://chevythunderdays.com/index2.php for more information.

AUTOGRAPHS: Mears will greet fans and sign autographs at the Kellogg's/CARQUEST souvenir trailer outside Texas Motor Speedway at 9 a.m. local time on Sunday.

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CASEY MEARS, DRIVER, NO. 5 CHEEZ-IT/CARQUEST CHEVROLET (ON HIS TOP-10 FINISH AT MARTINSVILLE.): "That was exactly what we needed, and it was the most fun I've ever had racing at Martinsville. Alan (Gustafson) and I had talked, and we knew that pit strategy would be imperative for us getting to the front. Fortunately that worked out for us. The car was incredible. We even suffered some damage there toward the end and still made it back up through the field. We're still not where we want to be in points, but every position forward helps."

MEARS (ON HIS SUCCESS AT 1.5-MILE TRACKS.): "I've just always done better on these intermediate tracks. I don't know if it's because that's what I raced more of in Indy cars or what, but I definitely am looking forward to getting back to them. Running well there isn't a guarantee as I can testify from a few races last year, and you just never know what's going to happen. But I do have a little more confidence going into intermediate races. I feel like our opportunity to gain on the competition is this weekend at Texas."

ALAN GUSTAFSON, CREW CHIEF, NO. 5 CHEEZ-IT/CARQUEST CHEVROLET (ON SUNDAY'S MARTINSVILLE RACE.): "It just feels good to get that monkey off of our back. We finished a race where we deserved to finish for the first time this season. It just proves to us that if we just keep on doing what we've been doing, the tide will turn for us."

GUSTAFSON (ON HIS PERFORMACE AT 1.5-MILE TRACKS.): "I'd like to say that our performances at Atlanta and Las Vegas have me confident in a win or a top-10 finish at Texas, but that's not how racing works. I don't think that us posting decent finishes at either of those tracks is any indication of how we'll run at other 1.5-mile speedways this year. I'm not going to say I'm excited to go somewhere just because I think we'll run well there. You can't assume those things."

GUSTAFSON (ON IF DRIVER STATISTICS AT A PARTICULAR TRACK PROVIDE THE TEAM WITH INSIGHT.): "To me, it's really not about statistics. There are tracks where we've led the most laps or won at, and you can think, 'Oh, this is going to be a great week for us.' But instead we've struggled. On others, where we've historically been terrible, we've worked really hard to change that and put more effort in and we've excelled. It's all about how much focus you put into each track, how good your car is and how you execute the race."

GUSTAFSON (ON HIS TEAM'S PERFORMANCE RECENTLY AT TEXAS.): "Over the past two or three years, we really struggled at Atlanta and Texas. Knowing that, we worked really hard on those two tracks for the 2007 season. The changes we made and the things we discovered really worked for us. We could have won races at both of those tracks last year. We just didn't execute. I made a call for four tires at the end of the Texas race, and in hindsight, I wish I would've done right-sides only. Then we had a lugnut issue, too. Those two things together just killed us. We couldn't overcome them."