HUNTERSVILLE, N.C. -- Humpy Wheeler and Casey Mears went fishing together on Lake Norman just outside of Charlotte on Wednesday, and Mears pulled a fish up out of the water so fast that one had to wonder if Wheeler had sent someone down in scuba gear to plant the catch on Mears' hook.

Wheeler, a master showman who also happens to be the track president and general manager of Lowe's Motor Speedway, has been known to pull all kinds of stunts. But pulling fish on cue out of a great expanse of water isn't one of them.

LMS

Casey Mears shows off his Coca-Cola 600 ring.

For Mears, though, the act was symbolic. Pulling wins out of the Nextel Cup circuit isn't easy, either, yet Mears finally did it for the first time at Wheeler's LMS track when he captured the Coca-Cola 600 on Memorial Day weekend.

Wheeler insisted that it will be far from Mears' last at the Cup level.

"He's just had a lot of bad luck. You know, you think, 'Gee whiz, some guys have so much bad luck, what are they doing that other people aren't?' But some guys just have a consistent stream of it, and you've got to shake it off," Wheeler said. "Bill Elliott couldn't win a race for anything for a long time -- and when it broke for him, it was like Mount Vesuvius.

"I think Casey has that type of talent. The crew chief and the crew, all that has got to come together so much now. That whole chemistry involving everybody has to be there, but I think he'll get there. I really do."

Mears said he appreciates Wheeler's faith in him.

"It's cool that Humpy says that," Mears said. "It's all there for us. We've got speed. We started off the season a little rough. But other than that, we've had some really good runs and I think that our future is really bright. I really do. I think it continues to grow and get better. The team continues to get stronger.

"You've got to have all the right stuff surrounding you to show people what you can do. Fortunately, this year I've had the opportunity to do that a few times -- and hopefully we'll do it more before the year is out."

Heading into this weekend's 3M Performance 400 at Michigan International Speedway, Mears obviously is a man on the move in the right direction. Since capturing his first and so far only Cup victory in May, no driver has gained more spots in the standings than Mears. He entered the Coca-Cola 600 sitting in 35th, and enters this Sunday's event in 16th.

If it seems like no one has noticed much, well, that's the way it is for Mears most of the time. He by far carries the lowest public profile of the four drivers currently employed by Hendrick Motorsports, and that's not going to change next year when Dale Earnhardt Jr. replaces Kyle Busch. The other Hendrick drivers are four-time Cup champion Jeff Gordon and defending champion Jimmie Johnson.

"A lot of people said when I first went to Hendrick, 'Well, you're going to be the fourth spoke on the wheel now. Jeff and Jimmie have won races. So-and-so has won races. And you're kind of going in there as the fourth driver,'" said Mears, who is in his first season driving the No. 25 Chevrolet for Hendrick after making 144 starts in four full seasons at Chip Ganassi Racing.

"I didn't look at it like that. I looked at it like, 'Why would I want to go to a team with less experience and less credentials?' Because I want to win. Obviously it has proven that it is a place that can provide the tools for you to do that."

He said that he doesn't like to think of himself as that fourth spoke on the wheel at Hendrick because it's not how he believes he is treated.

"I don't really look at it the way everyone else seems to," Mears said. "People from the outside look at it that way, but I don't. In no way, shape or form being a part of the Hendrick organization am I ever treated that way. Am I getting lesser equipment? Are they not putting the same amount of effort behind our program?

"I mean, yeah, I don't have the background of the race wins. And obviously Dale Jr. is his own media blitz without anything else going on around him. Jimmie and Jeff are champions and winners of all those races. But to me, it's just a plus to be part of Hendrick Motorsports and to be part of a team that has guys with those kinds of credentials that I can learn from and gauge off of."

The way Wheeler gauges drivers, Mears is well on his way to blossoming into one of the sport's stars. He certainly has the right bloodlines. His father, Roger, was an off-road driving legend who also raced in two Indy 500s and four Truck Series events (and now drives Casey's motorcoach). His uncle, Rick, was a four-time Indy 500 winner.

"I think he could be a great race driver," Wheeler said of the younger Mears. "For some reason or another, that third [or fourth] Hendrick car has always been a challenge. When he made the move from Ganassi to Hendrick, I thought that would be a good one. But he's in the shadows of Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon, and that's tough. And now he's got Junior coming over, so that's going to be interesting.

"But what I like about him is that he's very consistent. If you watch him later on in the race, it tells you something. I don't pay much attention to guys in the first two-thirds of a race, as far as judging a person's talent. I watch how they run the last third -- because they're tired, the track is usually slick, and all that kind of stuff. And he just seems to keep going, and he's also very good on a slick racetrack -- which is so important. That was one reason why [Dale] Earnhardt was so great.

"[Mears] learned that coming up with the off-road stuff and all the stuff that he did. So he's also very, very smart and very articulate. And he's going to win races with his brain. To a certain extent, with the computer guys in the pits and the better crew chiefs that we have, they figure all the strategy out. The one thing that they can't do is they can't think for the driver on the track. When you get to tracks like Martinsville and Dover, places like that where how a driver goes through the corner and how a driver uses his brakes can absolutely make a difference on whether the car is going to be in the top five at the end, in that last quarter of the race, you need someone like Casey."

Mears finished a respectable 14th in points last year, but ached to add a victory to his Cup resume. Now that he has one at Charlotte, like with the fish he caught in Lake Norman this week, it only has fueled his passion to pull out more.

If he can do it, he said he has no doubt that the fame and attention now showered on the other Hendrick drivers will someday be heaped on him, too. But he doesn't crave that.

"I don't race because it's just fun and if I get 15th, oh, that's great," Mears said. "I mean, I'm here to win races. That's what I want to do. I grew up winning races. Every series that I've been in, I've won races. And that's why I do what I do. I'm not content with where I've been the last few years as far as our position in points and the results. I'm in the right place right now to really capitalize on all the good information they have. ... Getting the media attention those guys are going to get, if you're winning races, that's going to come. It just naturally comes. But it's also a part of racing that doesn't make you faster on the racetrack.

"I just enjoy going on a racetrack. I love racing. I love going fast. And right now I think I have the best opportunity to do that."