Conversation: Casey Mears

FORT WORTH, Texas - Kasey Kahne has gotten a lot of attention for his electrifying start to 2004, but there's another Casey who has had a pretty good start, too.

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Casey Mears, driving what many consider to be Chip Ganassi Racing's "third team," is 18th in the Nextel Cup points standings with two seventh-place finishes. Last year, Mears' rookie season, the best he could do was a 15th.

Why the turnaround? Mears explained to NASCAR.COM's Lee Montgomery recently that there are a number of reasons why the No. 41 car is running better this year, but it begins with Mears himself.

Mears also talked about other hard-hitting subjects, like who could beat him in a BMX race, how pretty eyes and a puppy affect women and who is the better Casey, Mears or Kahne.

I talked with your crew chief, Jimmy Elledge, about you, and he was telling me that last year, you were almost giving too much feedback, like every little section of the corner. I told him that sounded a lot like your Uncle Rick. Is that accurate and was he right?

Mears: Well, I think so because on the IndyCar side of things, they encourage you to really break the corner apart, you know what I mean? Learning some stuff from Rick, too: really break that corner apart and explain it as best you could. It was always, "early entry, entry, in the center, just past the center and then off, here's what the thing's doing." You kind of broke it down.

Casey Mears  Driver Page  2004 Stats  2003 Stats  Merchandise

These cars are a little bit more basic when it comes to tuning them. There's only so much you can do. In an IndyCar, you can do five different things you can do to help all different parts of the corner, where here there are two or three things that are really going to affect it.

Don't get me wrong, there's a lot than can affect it in the overall grand scheme of things, but to actually tune the car, it's easier if you give them, "Hey, what's your biggest problem?" "I'm a little bit tight off." Even if you're a little bit loose in, you don't really need to mention because your biggest problem is tight off. That's what you need to focus on.

That's one area that I struggled at coming over in this direction was just finding out what my biggest problem was. I kind of figured that out, and it's making it easier for him to make the right calls, and our communication has gotten better that way.

Was there any point, last year or this year, where something finally clicked? Like, "Oh, yeah, that makes sense now"?

There were a lot of times last year where little things like that happened. This year, the biggest thing we had was the off-season to really look back and reflect on everything that we had done either right or wrong and try to learn from it and soak in some of these races that we were doing back-to-back so fast.

That last 20-week stretch there, and in the middle, all that, doing some Busch races and some ARCA races - it was very good that we got experience in all those different series, but at the end, we were down in the points, everybody was kind of frustrated, it was difficult to process everything that was happening.

That's what the off-season did for us. It gave me a chance to look back on everything. And there toward the end of the year, when you're running horrible three-quarters of the way through the year, when you think things are going bad, they get worse. You're down, and you don't realize it, and maybe you're not driving like you would normally do. You feel like you are, and you don't realize you're down a little bit.

And then there's a point there, too, when I was really concerned on whether I was going to be back next year. After Phoenix when I sat down with Bob Ulrich, the CEO at Target, and he gave me a pat on the back and said, "You're our guy. We want you back next year" and Chip showed that same support that night, things started to pick up. Well, the year was over.

Knowing that I had that whole off-season to know that I had a ride, I had people behind me, I knew that I had learned a ton and the team had picked up in every area as far as bodies, chassis, motors, and I feel like our team was better as far as the guys go - that's why we're running better this year.

Jimmy also described you as an aggressive driver. I don't want to say too aggressive but as an aggressive driver. Yet outside the car you seem so calm.

Mears: Yeah, I don't know. In the car, I like to drive hard. I kind of like to think I've learned a lot from my dad and a lot from my uncle. My dad was the type of driver who would stand on the gas at all times, no matter what.

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My uncle would stand on the gas, but at the same time thought things out a little bit more. I learned a lot from both of them, and I like to take my dad's "stand on the gas, let's drive hard," but then take my uncle's "let's do it at the right time." I'd like to think I take a little bit from them.

Outside the car, I am calm. And inside the car, I feel pretty calm. I feel pretty comfortable with what I do. But I still like to drive fast.

The three Ganassi teams, are they working together better than every before? And is that a big help?

Mears: I think so. It took a year under our belt. What happened last year, you get off to a bad start, and it's like the other teams don't really look at what you're doing. It's like, "Yeah, they're not running good." That was another thing that was kind of a downer. For us, it's like, "Man, they're not even considering what we've got because we're not running good."

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Last year, even though we were a three-car team and we do share all that information, I'd say that from our end, we weren't as much of a team as we are this year. Now, we're running really well, we've got a lot to contribute - just as much as the other guys do.

We all sit down at team meetings and share what we've found, whether it be in the car or the way that we're driving. I think our relationships have gotten pretty good. Jamie (McMurray) and Sterling (Marlin) and I get along great, so that's a big part of it.

I've read where you started in BMX bikes. Is there a driver in here who beat you on a bike these days?

Mears: On a bicycle? Oh, man. You know what? To be honest, I ride mountain bikes here and there, but I don't even know, man. A bicycle race - hard to say. Jimmy Spencer would probably get me pretty good. (laughing)

The women tell me they love your eyes. Do you use that to your advantage?

Mears: I don't know, I don't know. I guess that's a good thing. It's better than them saying they hate 'em, right?

Absolutely.

Mears: Now I've got a dog, too. So that makes it better, don't you think?

You've got a dog?

	Jamie McMurray (left) with Casey Mears

Mears: If I've got decent eyes, and now I've a little puppy, then that's like double-teaming.

You should walk through here with a dog sometimes. They'd be all over you, man.

Mears: (laughing) That's right.

You were talking a little bit about this, about how the team was a little down last year and people weren't talking to you. Do you feel like you're getting more respect this year with the way you've run so far?

Mears: I think so. And there were times last year when we ran real good. There were certain guys in the garage - other drivers - who would come up and say, "Hey, man, you guys are running good. You just need to get things right." Last year, we built the confidence in a lot of these other drivers that we weren't going to be stupid on the track.

This year, we're building confidence in other drivers that we're competitive. And we're building that confidence from our end and reassurance from their end that we can race hard and not end up in a big mess.

You got close at Atlanta, led a lot of laps. What would it mean to win one of these things? Would you get out of the car - people would probably stop saying you're calm if you're jumping up and down.

Mears: Man, I don't even know. I've always been pretty excited when I celebrate a victory like that. To be honest, after going through what we went through last year, I don't know how I'd react if we won. I don't know if it would be a big sigh of relief, or if I'd be elated because we won. We'll see that reaction when the time comes, but I'm sure I'll be excited, regardless.

	Crew chief Jimmy Elledge sat down with Mears in the offseason, and their chemistry has improved.

You talked about being excited about running the Indy 500. Any timetable for that? I'm guessing you're not going to do it this year? Have you and Chip talked about that?

Mears: I wouldn't think that it would happen this year. If for some reason, we started doing really outstanding on this end and we felt that it wouldn't hurt our program, maybe I'll get an opportunity. But right now, I know Chip really wants us to sit down and focus on what we're doing here and today.

In the future, it's definitely something I want to do. But when I do it, I want to make sure I do it right, too. If I'm going to run the 500, I wanted to know it two months ago so that we're going to do proper testing and do things right and really get ready to go.

I don't foresee it happening this year, but the sooner the better for me.

Now the real question, who's the better Casey, you or Kasey Kahne?

Mears: I guess you have to ask the public. Everybody comes up to me, saying, "Hey, Kasey Kahne, come sign my stuff for me." (laughing)

Do you sign it? Please tell me you sign it.

Mears: I sign sometimes. It's nice, too, he's run so good at the beginning of the season, running second and all that. They come up and say, "Hey, man, you did a good job last week finishing second." I kind of accept those, too.

I don't know. Kasey's an excellent driver and always has been, and we noticed that in Busch. And a great guy to top it off. Obviously, I feel like I can beat anybody in here is the way I look at it.

And if you're going to ask me if I'm better, I'd like to say I am. But at the end of the day, everybody in here is a great competitor. Kasey's had a great run the first part of the year, and we're hoping to start having our great runs from here on out.

At least you spell your name right.

That's right. He spells it wrong with that K. Kind of confuses people, I think.