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Mears is still on a high from last week's breeakthrough. (LAT photo) » More Photos
FIRST TIMER Casey Mears, a driver who is extremely popular with his peers in the NASCAR Nextel Cup garage, said that his first win last Sunday in the Coca-Cola 600 should lift his team up. "I've been seeing it going in the right direction the last four or five races," said Mears. "We've had some really competitive race cars. We haven't had a whole lot to show for it just because (we were in) the wrong place at the wrong time or just something happening that's kind of out of the ordinary. Fortunately we were able to piece that one together last weekend and proved to lot of people out there that we're a team that's competitive and has an opportunity to win and now I think that internally we've always known that the potential was there. Now externally everybody around us understands that."
As for the need to win on a team where all three of his Hendrick Motorsports already had visited victory lane this season and two are past champions, Mears insisted he didn't feel any heat. Well, not much, anyway. "I've never really let myself be bothered with those kind of pressures, the outside pressures, but it obviously weighs on your mind because now that we've won I feel a little bit more relaxed for sure," he said. " … People think just because you sign with Hendrick Motorsports all the sudden everything is great and you should be able to go win races right out of the gate. The bottom line is we had a new driver, a new crew chief, ended up having a new car chief a couple of races into the year and we got a lot of growing to do and we still do. We're probably about 15 percent into 100 percent of our potential which is encouraging because I know it's going to continue to get better."
Dover's facilities don't measure up for some. (LAT photo) » More Photos
HARD WORDS Dover International Speedway has only 42 pit
"After what took place last year, and the promises made by the track that they were going to increase it to 43 stalls and give us a real garage area to work in, and the things that were coming … we come back and none of it has changed," said an irked Johnson.
AUTISM SPEAKS In addition to being close pals off the track, NASCAR Nextel Cup drivers Jamie McMurray and Elliott Sadler are extremely active in the fight against autism, a disease that's afflicted both their families. McMurray and Sadler support autism awareness through their respective foundations and this weekend is a special one, with the running of the Autism Speaks 400 at Dover International Raceway.
The two participated in a charity golf tournament on Thursday and are both supporting the cause this weekend. "It's obviously special to me because the Jamie McMurray Foundation supports autism," McMurray said Friday. "Artie Kempner from Fox has just been incredible at coming up with ideas of ways we can create more awareness for autism. With it being the Autism Speaks 400 this weekend, Crown Royal stepped in and we built a special fire suit, a special helmet, a special paint scheme and we're actually going to auction off the helmet and driver's suit on SPEEDTV.com for a fan to buy and donate that money to the foundation and create more money for autistic families and create awareness."
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