(born
March 12 ,
1978 in
Bakersfield, California ) is the driver of the #25
National Guard /
GMAC Chevrolet in the
NASCAR Nextel Cup Series for
Hendrick Motorsports . He also drives the #24
National Guard Chevrolet in the NASCAR/Busch Series for Hendrick Motorsports. In
2008 Casey Mears will be moved to the long running #5 car for Hendrick Motorsports which has won a championship in 1996 with driver
Terry Labonte .
He is the nephew of four time
Indianapolis 500 winner
Rick Mears and the son of Indy and off-road veteran
Roger Mears .
After racing in go-karts for a season in 1991, Mears began competing in the SuperLites Off-Road Series in 1992 where he posted several top-three finishes.
In 1994, he finished third in the Jim Russell USAC Triple Crown Championship, with a win at Mesa Marin Raceway.
In 1995, Mears captured the Jim Russell USAC Triple Crown Championship.
In 1996 he made his Indy Lights Championship Series debut at the Cleveland Grand Prix and finished eighth.
In 1997, Mears competed full-time in the Indy Lights Championship Series and in 1999 he finished second in the points championship, losing by just 14 points. He was also just the fourth driver in Indy Lights Series history to complete every lap in a single season. Mears continued to compete in the Indy Lights Series in 2000 and won his first race at the Grand Prix of Houston in October.
After testing Indy Cars for multiple teams in 2000, Mears was offered a chance to drive a third entry for Team Rahal at California Speedway in October. After qualifying 15th and leading 10 laps, Mears posted a career-best fourth finish in his CART Series debut.
Mears ran three
IRL events at the start of the 2001 season before eventually finishing up the season by filling in for injured
ChampCar driver
Alex Zanardi , posting one top-10 finish in four starts.
Mears has 5 CART starts, with one top-5 finishe. He has 3 IRL starts, with no top-5 finishes.
Mears made his NASCAR debut in the
Busch Series in
2001 at
Homestead-Miami Speedway , driving the 66 car for
Cicci-Welliver Racing . He started 21st and finished 28th.
When the team was sold to
Wayne Jesel the next season, Mears drove for them full-time, finishing 21st in points with two top-ten finishes.
To the surprise of many, he was selected by
Chip Ganassi Racing to drive the #41
Target Dodge in
2003 . In his rookie season, he finished 35th after failing to finish in the top-ten in any race.
He drove the car for two additional seasons, and won two poles in
2004 .
During the
2005 season, it was announced Mears would move to a separate car for Chip Ganassi with
Home123 sponsorship, with the #41 to be piloted by
Reed Sorenson . The Home123 sponsorship fell through and he instead moved to the #42
Texaco /
Havoline Dodge for Ganassi, replacing the departing
Jamie McMurray .
On
June 9 ,
2006 Mears announced that he was leaving Chip Ganassi Racing at the end of the season to join
Hendrick Motorsports for the
2007 season, to replace the departing
Brian Vickers . On
July 8 , he finally won his first NASCAR race, a Busch Series race at
Chicagoland Speedway , coasting to the finish after running out of fuel.
For the 2007 season, Mears assumed driving duties for the #25 Hendrick car, with co-primary sponsorship from the Army National Guard and GMAC. On
May 27 he won the
Coca Cola 600 at
Charlotte for his first career Nextel Cup victory. He obtained the lead in the race with five laps remaining when most other lead lap cars stopped for fuel. Mears stretched his fuel to the finish, and ran out of fuel moments after his first checkered flag. He will drive the #5 car formerly driven by
Kyle Busch in 2008.
Mears added arguably the most impressive win to his resume on
January 29 ,
2006 when he,
Scott Dixon , and
Dan Wheldon teamed up to win the 44th annual Rolex
24 Hours Of Daytona for
Chip Ganassi racing. They set a race record for the
Daytona Prototype category, running 723 laps in 24 hours to score the win. Mears became the first ever full-time NASCAR driver to win the Rolex 24.
- Throughout his Nextel Cup career Mears has improved his final points position every year from 2003 from 35th, to 22nd in 2004 and 2005 and to 14th in 2006.
''Last Updated:
August 5th , 2007''
