Casey Mears makes 500th Cup start, ponders future: ‘I never stopped the love of driving race cars’

When Casey Mears returned to the NASCAR Cup Series last spring, one of his goals involved a major milestone: make his 500th career start. Mission accomplished. Mears reached No. 500 with the green flag in Sunday's season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway (3 p.m. ET, NBC, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), piloting Beard Motorsports' No. 62 Chevrolet. He was short by 12 starts after his full-time Cup career concluded after the 2016 campaign, but a pair of part-time efforts allowed him to become the 50th driver in history to check that box. RELATED: Live leaderboard | At-track photos: Homestead "It's super cool, really," Mears told NASCAR.com after Friday's opening Cup Series practice. "I think that it's all about perspective, right? And you know, after being out of the sport for as long as I was, to be able to come back and do it in the fashion we're doing it is pretty cool. There's not a lot of people that get to do that, you know, at a professional level, and so it means a lot. "I think it's funny that the same frustrations set in as they always did. Like, I come here and I go, 'Oh, no matter how it goes, I'm just gonna have a good time, and it's just fun to be back,' and then something's not working right, then you immediately just go into race mode again and start trying to fix the problem. So, I guess in the end, it's just awesome to have the opportunity to do it." The nephew of American open-wheel legend Rick Mears, Casey Mears began his racing career following the same pathway. He debuted in the Indy Lights Series in 1996, running three full-time campaigns between then and 2000 and winning once. Mears began his transition to NASCAR in 2001, eventually debuting at the Cup level in 2003 with Chip Ganassi Racing. The Bakersfield, California, native spent four years at Ganassi -- including three behind the wheel of the No. 41 Dodge -- before transitioning to Hendrick Motorsports in 2007, the year of his lone Cup win in the Coca-Cola 600. He spent two years with Hendrick -- one season in the No. 25 Chevrolet and one season in the No. 5 Chevrolet -- before a switch to Richard Childress Racing in 2009. After a part-time Cup slate in 2010, Mears joined Germain Racing in 2011, where he drove the team's No. 13 Chevrolet through the 2016 season, marking the end of his full-time career. Germain has stayed involved with Mears through the years, and his Gracie Foundation charity group have offered support with sponsorship of the No. 62 entry this weekend. Mears finished inside the top 15 in Cup points twice and recorded 51 top 10s, along with three poles. He also has a NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series victory and three ARCA Menards Series wins to his name. The now 48-year-old made his first Cup start in more than two years with the 2019 Daytona 500, then didn't return until 2025 -- when he made five starts for the Carl Long-owned Garage 66. Mears powered that team into the Daytona 500 in February this year before making his next five starts for the part-time Beard effort. His recent partial schedule -- a sharp contrast from his bustling years of full-time driving -- has afforded him more opportunities to reflect. "I tend to, these last few races, soak in the pre-race ceremonies a little bit more, walk out, see the crowd, spending time with fans," Mears said. "I think that I always did a pretty good job of that, but at the same time, there's moments where you're just in the middle of your job, right? So it's hard to stop sometimes and sign autographs, but definitely, you appreciate what I got to do at a high level for so long, and when I was in it, it was just what I did. You don't think about it from that perspective because you're just trying to go faster week in, week out. But after being out of it for a while, and then getting a chance to come back, to be able to even be on the track and compete at this level is a privilege, really, and I'm happy to be a part of it." Mears' first start in NASCAR came 25 years ago at Homestead-Miami in what's now the O'Reilly Auto Parts Series, driving the Jeff Welliver-owned No. 66 to a 28th-place finish. He said that he's not sure if Sunday's race will bring full-circle closure to his career, leaving the door open for Cup Series start No. 501 or opportunities in other series. "I don't know what next year looks like yet," Mears said. "Right now, I just really wanted to reach this goal, but I never stopped the love of driving race cars. You know, that never went away for me. It's just, the opportunities did. So if there's an opportunity to do something, I wouldn't mind running in the Truck Series or in the O'Reilly Series a little bit. I mean, I've had a really fun time coming back and being in a race car, so I would be open to doing something else, too." Contributing: Zack Albert in Homestead, Florida