Mears Is as Confident as Ever After Daytona Feat

Casey Mears would look forward to this Sunday’s Nextel Cup race at California Speedway under any conditions, because it’s a homecoming of sorts for the Bakersfield native.

But after what happened last Sunday in the Daytona 500, Mears can’t get to Fontana for the Auto Club 500 fast enough.

Mears, who turns 28 on March 12, is the son of off-road racing champion Roger Mears and the nephew of Rick Mears, four-time winner of the Indianapolis 500.

Casey, too, began his career in open-wheel racing but shifted to NASCAR in 2003. It’s been a struggle, Mears grappling with the intricacies of driving 3,400-pound stock cars.

Then it all came together at Daytona, with Mears finishing a blink-of-an-eye second behind winner Jimmie Johnson, a close friend and fellow Californian from El Cajon.

To be sure, it was only the first race of the season, but it gave Mears crucial momentum coming into the California race and toward putting his lackluster NASCAR record behind him. It also gave him a $1.1-million payday.

Even before Daytona, he said, “We really felt this was going to be our year. We felt our whole team had stepped up here in the last five or six months.”

Mears needs a strong season. Although he has won more than $10 million in NASCAR racing, until last week, he had managed only four top-five finishes and has yet to drive into Victory Lane.

That could change at the two-mile California Speedway.

“California has always been a good race course for us,” he said. “We typically tend to run in the top five or 10 there. We’ve got a lot of confidence going into California.”

Mears drives for the Dodge team of Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates. The team shuffled its roster over the winter after Jamie McMurray went to Roush Racing to replace Kurt Busch. Mears is now driving the No. 42 that McMurray vacated.

“The first couple of years, I really struggled,” said Mears, who sports a shaved head. “But now I’ve gotten to the point where I think I can win races and run up front.”

Mears also got a pre-Daytona 500 lift in January by teaming with Indy 500 winner Dan Wheldon and former IRL champion Scott Dixon to win the Rolex 24 endurance race -- also in a Ganassi car -- at Daytona International Speedway.

Mears began his career with plans to follow his father and uncle in racing Indy cars. But the split in open-wheel racing between the Indy Racing League series and what is now the Champ Car World Series left him in limbo.

“It was really unclear which series was going to continue to grow,” he said.

So he looked at stock-car racing “on a whim” and, in 2003, began his first full season on the Nextel Cup circuit for Ganassi.

“When I saw how powerful NASCAR was, and how big the crowds were firsthand, it made me realize this is where I need to be,” Mears said.

Among those taking notice of Mears’ surge is his friend Johnson.

“I am so happy for Casey,” Johnson said during a break in his Daytona 500 victory appearances this week. “He’s been through a challenging career.

“Casey always has such a great outlook on things,” Johnson said. “I’ve never really seen him too down and out. He’s always believed in himself.”

Even if Mears has a breakout year in NASCAR, he still hopes to drive in the Indianapolis 500 some year.

“It’s just a dream of mine,” he said. “My uncle won four times, and it’s a big part of our family history. I’m more than happy where I am, but it still lingers.”

Major events at California Speedway this weekend begin Friday with Nextel Cup qualifying starting at 3:40 p.m. and then the NASCAR Craftsman Truck race at 6:15. The Busch Series race is Saturday at 3:30 p.m., followed by the Auto Club 500 on Sunday at 1 p.m.