Conversation: Casey Mears

Greg Biffle has already won a race this season as a rookie, and rookie Jamie McMurray won a race last year as a pre-rookie.

Another rookie, Casey Mears, is still looking for that first victory. But his situation is a bit different from other big-name rookies who have come to Winston Cup racing the last few years.

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Mears, the son of IndyCar veteran Roger Mears and the nephew of four-time Indy 500 winner Rick Mears, had only a handful of stock car races under his belt when Chip Ganassi signed him to drive the No. 41 Dodge.

Mears has understandably struggled, but signs point to an increase in performance. He's driven in some ARCA and Busch Series races, giving him valuable experience behind the wheel.

NASCAR.com's Lee Montgomery recently visited Mears to talk about the rookie driver's season, about leaving open-wheel racing and about his teammate and practical joker extraordinaire, Sterling Marlin.

Casey Mears, rookie, what kind of grade would you put on your performance this season so far?

Mears: I've gotten that question a lot this year. To be honest, I don't really sit around and think about it too much, what kind of grade I'd give myself.

I think that given where we're at in points right now, it hasn't been a good season for us. But at the same time, it's been such a steep learning curve. I think I've learned a lot throughout the year. We've improved a ton from the beginning of the year to the end.

	Mears (left) with Jamie McMurray (center) and Greg Biffle Credit: Autostock

We haven't gotten the results we've wanted - or deserved. We've run really well at a lot of races, especially the second half of the year.

We've been inside the top 10, top 15 several times and just haven't brought it home for whatever reason. I've made a couple mistakes, getting caught up in stuff like a crash on the track.

Like last week at Michigan, we had a very good car, and I got caught up in that deal with Ricky Craven.

A grade? I don't know. I wouldn't say we're excellent, and I wouldn't say we're bad. So I guess probably a C, you know what I mean? That's probably something I'd give myself.

Or maybe an Incomplete at this point.

Mears: Yeah, we've just got a lot of proving to do, I think. Within the team, we know we can do well, and it's been like that all year.

It's been frustrating, because we get to some of the places where we know we can do well, like Michigan and Pocono and Chicago - where we had such a good race going and the left-rear blew out.

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Pocono, I made a mistake; Michigan, I got caught up with Craven - so those are places where we really felt good about going back to and knew that we could run well and get a good result.

At Watkins Glen, we were running fourth at the time, and I made a mistake. It was only my second time on a road course in a Cup car, and we were running really well.

We've had good runs. We just haven't brought it home. It's going to start coming together. I just need time. The team knows that.

Fortunately, they've stuck behind me pretty strong. Chip's giving me all the seat time I've needed with running some of the Busch and ARCA stuff.

Our plans to go full-fledge for next year and get all the experience we possibly can so we can start off next year strong and do what we need to do.

I was going to ask you about the ARCA and Busch stuff. Is there any to quantify how much that's helped with the Cup car?

Mears: Like you said, I don't know to put it into words how much it's helped but it's just been a ton. Every chance I go out that get more seat time in a stock car is just valuable.

I can't even really place exactly what it is I learned. You can't say, 'In particular, I learned this or that.' It's just seat time. The more you run, the more you learn and the more that you take in, and you don't even realize it.

	Mears with crew chief Jimmy Elledge (right) Credit: Autostock

It's just valuable, really valuable, getting seat time in these cars because they're just different.

I find myself without even realizing exactly why, but getting out of one of those cars and getting in the Cup car and just being faster right off the bat. It's been great.

It's been what we've needed to do. Like I said, it kind of seems like it's been one thing after another this year. Now to come to a place like Bristol, where obviously, we can run well, but we didn't qualify good.

The likelihood of getting caught up in something here is 80 percent out of 100 - if not more. We need to make it through this race at Bristol and focus on Darlington because we had a really good run there, a really good run there at Darlington.

We drove up to sixth place. It was early in the season, and I ended up getting in the fence a little bit, which happens at that place, too. I'm looking forward to going back to a lot of these tracks.

Has Bristol, the short tracks, been kind of the toughest challenge, not having a lot of the stock car experience? Or is there another track that's been difficult?

Mears: I would say Martinsville's been the toughest place. Bristol, I've had a tough time qualifying, but usually in the race I feel pretty good. There's something different about qualifying here.

Everywhere else we go, I pick up a ton when we go to qualify and usually end up qualifying pretty well. But something here is different about. I think I finally picked up on it, but it was after qualifying, unfortunately.

	Mears has three top-10 qualifying runs this season. Credit: Autostock

I think I just drive it in a little too hard at this place. Everywhere else, you can drive it a little harder and pick up the gas a little sooner and be faster.

Where this place, if you drive in a little too hard, it upsets your whole corner. This place in particular has been tough for qualifying, the race is tough because it's just hard not to get caught up in something.

Martinsville, by far, was the toughest track I've been to this year, just because I've never raced anything like that before. Before I came over to stock cars, I hadn't raced anything under a mile as far as ovals go.

The short track stuff is where I probably lack the most in experience. But I'm learning a lot. I think I learned a lot during the Martinsville race, and I learned a lot in the last Bristol race that's going to apply today.

Biffle has won this year, and your teammate McMurray obviously won last year as a pre-rookie. Is there maybe too much expected out of rookies in general, and maybe too much out of you in particular?

Mears: I don't know. I don't think so. I think the question is raised more than there are questions, to be honest with you.

I get that question a lot, but to be honest, I think at the end of the day, what has happened the last couple of years with some of the rookies, you've got to look at their circumstances, too, where they came from.

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Several of those guys ran Trucks for a couple years, ran Busch for a couple years, and then they went into Winston Cup and got with great teams with past, proven winning champions and current champions involved with those teams.

It's a different situation for me. Target Chip Ganassi Racing is a great team and a very top-caliber team, but my level of experience going into Winston Cup was nothing compared to a lot of those guys.

I don't really classify myself in that same category. At the end of the day, once I gain the experience, there's no doubt there isn't anybody who can't be beaten out there. I know that we can do that today.

But at the same time, I can't put myself in the same class as them as far as how fast I need to improve or accelerate on these tracks. It's just going to take time. Those guys had that time in prior series, and I just need the time now in Cup.

There's been a lot of talk recently about young drivers and their aggressiveness, and maybe even their over-aggressiveness. What's your approach to trying to earn the veteran drivers' respect?

	Aftermath of Pocono crash Credit: Autostock

Mears: You try to drive as clean as you possibly can. There's two ways of looking at that.

The one way is you can come into this series, not get into any trouble, not race anybody real hard and kind of get through your first year, and then hope going into your second year they don't take you as a pushover and try to knock you around all the time.

That question is always raised. I think that at the end of the day, what you've got to do is race your race. We're paid to race and win races and run up front.

Just because we're rookies or new, I don't think, means you need to move out of the way. A lot of these veterans think that, that, 'Man, he should have got out of my way.' 'What do you mean get out of the way? We're both on the lead lap, we're both racing for position.'

There are things here that I really like. And these drivers work with each other a lot. Certain guys will point other people by when it's the right time for them.

Some people go out of the way to let you by. I think that's good. On the other hand, every other racing I've come from, you race for every single position you possibly can.

These days, track position is so key. You can't afford to be easy on anybody nowadays. I think the times have changed a bit. There are times for doing that type of stuff and times for not doing that type of stuff.

It's a double-edged sword, being a rookie, really. You've got to race aggressively, you've got to race hard, just like everybody else does. But at the end of the day, if you do it too much, you're going to get criticized for it. That's just part of being a rookie.

You mentioned a little bit about your background being open-wheel, your family, your dad, your uncle. Was it difficult to give that up? Or was it you knew that NASCAR was the right direction for your career?

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Mears: To be honest, at the time I made the transition, I really didn't feel like I was giving it up. It was at a point in my career where it looked like I had a pretty good opportunity to maybe go to CART.

There were another couple opportunities to go IRL at the time. Definitely something that I always wanted to do, but at that time in open-wheel, it was really unclear on whether it was going to be CART or IRL that was going to be the one to go with in the future.

At this point, it looks like IRL is probably going to be the stronger of the two, but at that time, it was still really unclear.

I had an opportunity. I decided to take it while I was still young. If I didn't like it or it didn't work out, I'd go back to open-wheel. But I do like it. I really enjoy it over here.

Couldn't be happier. I really don't want to go back to open-wheel. I'd like to run the 500 at some point, and I do miss running those cars. Those cars are fun to drive, they're really fun to drive. But at the same time, the total package is here in NASCAR.

You answered my next question about the 500. Is that something that's really big on your agenda in the future? Even next year?

Mears: I'd love to do it every year. It's been so on the backburner - pretty big on the backburner - because as we've already talked about, the first part of my season here, we've struggled, and we've got a lot to do.

I've got a lot to do to make sure that I'm here for a lot of years to come. We've got to work hard to make that happen. That's the first and foremost of what we've got to do, is focus on the stock car side of things and get things going here on the Cup side.

If that's gets rolling, who knows in the future?

Hopefully, I'll get an opportunity to go and run the 500, but it's not at the top of my list right now. Right now, the top of my list is running well in Cup.

Last question. Your teammate Sterling's a big practical joker. Has he pulled any good ones on your recently, or ever?

Mears: Not really recently. But Sterling, he's a crackup. We always have a good time. As a kid, when you get involved in this sport, you do it because it's fun, it's a good time, and you just love racing and you love going fast and you love the competition.

Sometimes in this sport, as businesslike as it's gotten, the million-dollar sponsors, sometimes it can take the fun out of it.

With a guy like Sterling, you can't help but have a good time and have fun because he's always laughing and playing around and having a good time. It's always good to have him around.

The only thing that's done to me as a good practical joke was right at the beginning of the year when we went testing. It was either Talladega or Daytona.

I can't remember where we were. We were doing a speedway test. It was him and a couple other guys on the team got on this deal.

They got myself, Jamie, Donnie, his crew chief, and Jimmy, my crew chief and a couple other new guys on the team into the van - it was at the end of the day, at the end of the test - and said, 'Hey, Chip's on the phone, and he wants to talk to you about how your day went and how things are going with everybody getting to know each other.

We're like, 'Oh, OK.' Everybody's real serious.

We're getting in the van, ready to talk to Chip, and (Sterling) throws one of these quarter-sticks of dynamite underneath the van. I thought the van was going to blow over it was so hard.

It just scared the crap out of everybody. We all hit our heads on top of the van and bailed out real fast.

We got him at the end of the day. I think that was the first day. Jamie and I, that night, went to the fireworks store and got a bunch of fireworks and stink bombs and all kinds of stuff.

The next day, he comes back and pulls up in his car. He gets out of his car and leaves it running with the windows down. We run in and smash of stunk bombs in the floorboard and roll down his back window, so when he's driving off, we threw some fireworks in the back of his rental car.

We got him back a little bit, but he got us way better than we got him.