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NASCAR Sprint-Cup Series
CUP: This Time, Fill-In Role Personal For Mears
Casey Mears will fill in for Brian Vickers in this weekend’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Dover International Speedway...
SceneDaily.com  |  Posted May 14, 2010   Dover, DE
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series drivers Casey Mears (Left) and Brian Vickers (Right) are good friends. (Photo: LAT Photographic)
Casey Mears is in his second stint as a replacement driver this year, but replacing good friend Brian Vickers is a little bit different than his last job, where he did little more than practice for an injured Denny Hamlin.

Vickers was hospitalized Wednesday because of blood clots in his veins and the 26-year-old Red Bull driver will miss this weekend’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Dover International Speedway.

“It’s definitely more personal for me for sure,” Mears said Friday prior to Cup practice. “Brian is a good friend. I have the concerns that a friend would have of another good friend.

“When it comes to being on the track, a lot of that stuff kind of has to go out of your mind and you have to focus on your job. The best way that I can help him business-wise is to have the best result we possibly can and get [the team] further ahead in the points. But behind the scenes, it’s for sure a lot more personal.”

It is not known how long Vickers will be out of the car, and that makes it a little different than Mears’ experience with Hamlin. At Phoenix earlier this year, Mears filled in for Hamlin, who had undergone knee surgery, during practice sessions. With Mears on standby, Hamlin started, and completed, the race.

“All you can do is focus on right now and the only way that I can make the car fast right now is to get what I want out of it,” Mears said. “I have to treat this like I’ve been here all year long and we’re just going out trying to win a race. Depending on how the car feels, I have to tell them what’s going to make it faster this weekend for me.

“Hopefully anything that we can do this weekend will apply to something they might do in the future as well.”

Vickers has talked to Mears a little bit about working with Red Bull. Mears has competed in only two Cup races this year, as he has attempted to qualify for eight events with financially strapped teams Keyed-Up Motorsports and Tommy Baldwin Racing.
Brian Vickers returns to action for Red Bull Racing in 2011 after being sidelined most of last season because of complications from blood clots. (Photo: LAT Photographic)

“What needs to happen is I need to work with all these guys and form my own opinion and then give Vickers a call and find out if we’re feeling the same things ... then you can kind of make progress from there,” Mears said. “He’s definitely given me some insight to what these guys have done the last couple of weeks to improve some of the direction they’ve been working on so [hopefully] I can help give these guys good feedback a little bit sooner.”

There was little time Friday morning to get the car ready for Mears, who got the inserts out of his seat in the TBR car, which he originally was going to drive this weekend before getting the call Thursday morning. One of the inserts was cut and stuck in the back of Vickers’ seat to make it more comfortable for Mears.

“This late in the game, jumping in the car, nothing is going to be 100 percent the way you want it,” Mears said. “All these guys did a really good job getting it as close as they could in a short amount of time.

“We’re using Brian’s seat. … The seating position is a little bit different than how I usually have. There is a different style throttle pedal. There’s a lot of little things that are different, but it’s really close and I think it’s going to be just fine.”

Having driven for Hendrick Motorsports, Richard Childress Racing and Chip Ganassi Racing prior to this season, and now having been in JGR and Red Bull cars, Mears has a wealth of experience in quality equipment.

Mears has 254 career Cup starts and one victory – in the Coca-Cola 600 in May 2007.

“We want to compete at a high level,” Red Bull Racing general manager Jay Frye said. “We think Casey Mears can do it. Casey’s a young guy who still has something to prove and we think we should be able to compete at a very high level this weekend, just like we had expectations before this happened.”

Mears said his goal is the same as in most weeks he’s run in Cup.

“I’m a race-car driver, I go to race tracks to win races,” Mears said. “We’re here to win and do a good job for Red Bull. Wherever we end up is where we end up, but obviously we’re going to do the best job we can.”

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