Casey Mears' best finish in 2005 has been a fourth at Texas. Credit: Autostock

Conversation: Mears

TALLADEGA, Ala. -- After yet another crash Sunday that wiped out Casey Mears' chances for his first Nextel Cup victory, a bystander asked, "Does anyone in this garage have worse luck than this kid?"

That question is impossible to answer.

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Chip Ganassi Racing is expanding to four teams, but Mears was moved to the new fourth car, meaning he will be starting 2006 without the benefit of owners points. He will have to make the first five Nextel Cup shows on speed.

Mears spoke candidly about his recent visit to hurricane-ravaged Mississippi, his concerns for next year and his up-and-down 2005 season.

Casey, you went to Mississippi yesterday. What was that like?

Yeah, we went to Biloxi, Mississippi.

We went down there to show what support we can. I don't know how much a guy like myself can do for people that have suffered something that bad, but really we went down there and the whole Target Chip Ganassi Racing organization -- [owners Ganassi and Sabates] Chip and Felix decided to fly down some policemen actually that were going to help guard the hospital they have set up there.

That was one purpose, was to bring those guys down to help out. And also, just to go down there and meet everybody, see if maybe we could bring a smile to someone's face and just go down and check everything out for ourselves.

It's just unbelievable. You really can't put into words how bad the devastation is there. Just completely wiped out areas. It's unreal.

Let's go to your racing for a second. You have to go to Daytona with no provisionals. Have you thought about that?

Yeah. That is the biggest thing I am upset with about next year.

I think I am really excited about being a par of [2006 sponsor] the Home123 group, that whole sponsor is great and I am excited to come back with the team and the organization for next year, but really disappointed that I don't have a number that has points for the first five races.

Obviously I feel we can qualify, we can do well, but you know, if you look at what happened to Reed [Sorenson] earlier this year at Atlanta, some freak things can happen.

Weather can keep you out. If you miss one of those first five races, it puts you in a big hole as far as points go.

Hopefully we won't even have to talk about that the first five races of the year. Hopefully everything goes well and we won't have to worry about that. Definitely the most frustrating thing going into next year is going to be that.

They have not announced your crew chief yet for next year. Has that been a distraction?

Yeah, everyone wants to get things nailed down, you know? Everyone wants to know what is going on for next year.

Right now, there has been some talk about who might be there, but still, we don't have anything in stone, as of right now, none of us really know exactly who is going to be what crew chief next year.

I know they are working really hard at figuring that out, but right now, it is kind of up in the air.

On a positive note, you guys are going to four teams, and I have read -- and it makes sense -- that with three teams, one team is going to get some bad equipment from time to time.

Do you think going to four teams and following the Hendrick model is going to be the way to the front for you guys?

Casey Mears

I don't know. I think our team, regardless of how many cars were there; the have always worked hard trying to give everyone the same stuff as far as I know.

I don't feel like that has ever been an issue within our organization to begin with. But the four teams -- it creates a lot more work but it also brings a lot more sponsorship in, and I think with bringing Reed and David [Stremme] up, both are good guys and have a lot of talent.

They will bring a lot to the organization as well. So we will just have to wait and see how things turn out.

Anytime you make a change, it is going to affect the team in some way or another. Right now, everything looks really positive for next year. We will just have to wait and see how it pans out.

Casey, I really thought you'd win a couple of races this year, and you've got to feel the same way.

Yeah, we have had some frustrating years the last couple of years, and I'd say this is probably the most frustrating year that I have had just because everything is there.

We have run so well at so many events, even last weekend at Dover, we had a top-three car that was even capable of winning, you know, if we had been in the right situation at the right time.

We come home 10th with it. We just got caught out on the pit stop, or got caught out on that caution in the pits, and I could go down a long list of races where we were really fast, capable of top-five runs, and just things out of our control happened.

It's just been really frustrating, you know, the biggest thing we can do is just try to do the best job we can the remainder of the season and we still have a lot of opportunities to win races before the year is out.

What is going to be the best track for you?

I don't know. I think Kansas. Charlotte. I can't remember If Texas is in there or not. And Atlanta.

Five of the last seven races are on the one-and-a-half milers

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Yeah. Those are tracks that we really excel at and run really well at. Charlotte is going to be a little bit of a crapshoot because it's different and we haven't tested there.

You know they changed that again. We will see how that all turns out. As far as Atlanta goes, Texas and Kansas -- we had a very fast car last year [at Kansas] and led the race for a while and we were running second or third and ended up blowing a right front.

I feel good about going back there.

Has it been different going to the tracks with the Charger as opposed to the Intrepid?

Well, yeah, it was different for everybody, but throwing into the mix there, they cut they spoiler off. If we would have just changed the nose, I could have told you more about how much of that actually relates to the Charger.

I think the total package with the nose and the tail and the tires and the spoiler change is a lot of changes all at once.

We have got a pretty good hold on it now; we know what we got to do to make it go fast. It's been a little bit hard to tune at times, but when it is fast, it's really fast.

Have you guys gotten some downforce back on the cars since the rules changes 10 months ago?

We have definitely snuck back up on it.

I don't think we are all the way back to where we were, I wouldn't say we have the downforce that we have had, but we have definitely figured out other ways to make the car stick.