Conversation: Casey Mears

The names Hendrick and Mears are synonymous with success inside the racing industry. So outside looking in, one might assume Casey Mears, nephew to racing legend Rick Mears and driver for Rick Hendrick, would become an instant sensation.

Well it's just not that simple. A ride with NASCAR's most dominant team doesn't guarantee you a spot in the top 10 or even top 20 in Mears' case. The 29-year-old driver of the No. 25 Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports is uneasy sitting 35th in the point standings and knows it's going to take more than blood line to overcome his predicament.

Despite the growing pains of a new team this season and tumultuous turns on the track, Mears said he will find his way to Victory Lane just as his three teammates have early in this season.

That's if he can keep one of those teammates off his tail in Richmond this weekend ...

Hard-hit luck

Casey Mears continued to be plagued with bad luck. And just when things couldn't get worse for the No. 25 team after wrecking at Talladega.

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Q: You led your first lap on the season at Talladega, first career lap in the No. 25 Chevrolet. Unfortunately you got wrecked, by your own teammate no less (watch video). What happened?

Mears: It was just a miscommunication deal. We have a program within our organization where we are all in communication about when to pit. All of our engineers shoot messages back and forth but for some reason the 48 didn't get the message. And I also waved off, both the front and backstretch, out my left-side window signaling to Jimmie [Johnson] I was going to pit. I got on the brakes and [Johnson] ended up getting in the back of me.

Jimmie just never saw it. Between all of those things, it just didn't work out.

Jimmie is probably my best friend in the world, so I know he didn't do it on purpose.

Q: Are you able to laugh about it yet?

Mears: Yeah we joked about it on his radio show, we are great friends and nothing will ever get in the way of that. It was completely unintentional. We were laughing and saying he doesn't mess around. If he's going to wreck you he's going to wreck you. Jimmie doesn't do anything halfway. He did a good job.

Q: You're car looked great Sunday, in fact, on Lap 98 you took the lead while Johnson and Jeff Gordon lined up behind you to make it a 1-2-3 run for Hendrick Motorsports as the race crossed the 100-lap mark.

Mears: We did. I don't know. We had some really good teamwork going on there, running 1-2-3 and just working with each other. As for my team, we are progressing and bringing Darian Grubb on board as crew chief has been great. We've got fast cars and capable people and it's a big transition and it may take some time to get things worked out and we will. (Continued)