After two DNFs, Mears needs a good run at Bristol

During preseason testing at Daytona, Casey Mears and his crew chief, Alan Gustafson, told the media they enjoyed flying under the radar. With four-time champion Jeff Gordon, two-time defending champion Jimmie Johnson and the sport's most popular driver, Dale Earnhardt Jr., as teammates, the quiet and unassuming Mears was easy to overlook.

He is not being overlooked now -- but it's for the wrong reason.

Fast Facts

What	Food City 500
When	1:30 p.m. ET Sunday
TV	FOX
Radio	PRN / Sirius Ch. 128

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Mears' No. 5 Chevrolet is 30th in Sprint Cup owner points going into Sunday's running of the Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway and is in jeopardy of falling out of the top 35 in the standings. Only the top 35 are locked into the field for each Cup race.

If he is feeling pressure to perform this weekend, Mears isn't showing it. Instead, he's more amazed at reaching the age of 30.

"I know I'm going to get old," said Mears, who turned 30 on Wednesday. "If anything, I'm more like 'Wow! I made it to 30. That's pretty cool!' You know?"

Mears' season has been one disappointment after another.

A crash at Daytona with a handful of laps left was followed by another crash at Fontana that left Mears on his roof. Two races into the season he had as many DNFs as he had all of last year. He recovered to finish 13th at Las Vegas and was 17th at Atlanta and finds himself 33 points ahead of 35th-place J.J. Yeley for the final guaranteed position.

Another sub-par performance could force him to qualify on speed when the series resumes in two weeks at Martinsville. That would be a shocking development for Hendrick Motorsports, which won 18 of 36 races last year, including one by Mears.

Still, there's no panic from the driver or from the crew chief.

"To keep my driver calm and patient, I first have to remain calm," Gustafson said. "I remind myself to not get too excited, even though with short track racing, excitement just comes naturally. If something goes wrong, I have to be able to minimize the effects of that as much as I can."

By the Numbers

Dale Jarrett will step away from the car following 500 miles at Bristol in his 668th Cup start.

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Mears, who drove the No. 25 in 2007, switched this year to the No. 5, which went to Victory Lane last March at Bristol when Kyle Busch narrowly held off a last-lap charge by Jeff Burton.

"Last year we had a very good racecar at Bristol," Gustafson said. "But the win didn't come easy. We had to battle it out all day. [Tony] Stewart and [Denny] Hamlin were both really good but had issues. Then it came down to the very end with us and Burton. It was an exciting race.

"The coolest part of it all, though, was that it was the first [new car] victory, the 200th NASCAR win for Hendrick and the 600th Sprint Cup win for Chevrolet. All of those things are a pretty big deal. It's nice that the No. 5 team was the one to earn that for everyone."

Mears has one career top-10 finish in 10 starts at Bristol, where his driver rating is 55.4, the lowest among Cup drivers who have started the past six races at the track. He would be wise to seek counsel from Gordon, whose driver rating of 103.1 is second only to Matt Kenseth's 111.4. Gordon has five career wins at Bristol and can't wait to race on the reconfigured banking for the second time.

"From a driver's perspective, I thought they did a great job with the changes," Gordon said. "The configuration and the transitions in and off the corners are phenomenal. They basically gave us more room to race here, and I think you could see that in the race last August. I had never seen so much racing all over the track.

"I didn't think you could make Bristol any cooler or any more fun, but they did."