Casey Mears qualified 16th for the Chevy 400 at RIR. Credit: Darrell Ingham/Getty Images

Mears: No desire to return to open-wheel

Other than possible Indy start, Mears says he's in NASCAR to stay

RICHMOND, Va. -- Casey Mears' last name alone gets him a lot of questions during the month of May.

As preparations continue for the Indy 500, Mears says his perspective on open-wheel racing has changed dramatically."

"I think there's a lot of guys living in the dark when they say that open-wheel racing is the best racing in the world," Mears said.

Mears: "I don't really have a desire to go back to open-wheel at all, other than to run the 500." Credit: Darrell Ingham/Getty Images

"And I was one of those guys until I had an opportunity to come over this direction and see how big NASCAR is and how much fun the racing is."

Mears said his Indy racing bias even continued after he had started running NASCAR.

"It's funny because the first couple of years I raced stock cars I really had a big desire to go back to open-wheel racing and run.

"Now, the longer I'm here and the more I learn about this sport and the more fun I have, I don't really have a desire to go back to open-wheel at all, other than to run the 500."

Mears' stock car career is progressing rather well. Although he sits 25th in points heading into this weekend's action at Richmond, he and his team have shown flashes of brilliance, most notably a fourth-place run at Texas last month and a seventh-place effort at Las Vegas in March.

But there have also been problems. A crash at Bristol took him out with just 20 laps in put him 43rd. A wreck at Darlington last week put him 39th.

CASEY MEARS •   Driver Page •   2004 Stats •   Dodge Fast Track •   Superstore: Mears gear!

"We've had strong performances. We just haven't done it on a consistent level," Mears said. "And that's what we need to do right now is get more consistency.

"There's times you get caught up in crashes or just have some sort of problems that are just out of your control that puts you in 30th or 40th and it really kills you in the points, so we just need to get more consistency."

Mears' history at Richmond is a bit shaky. In four starts, he has yet to finish better than 28th. He'll start 16th on Saturday night.

"Every time it seemed like things were starting to go our way, something always happened," said Mears. "Last year we were caught up in an incident in the fall, and we broke an upper A-frame in May. We haven't had a clean race at Richmond yet.

Despite that, Mears said with a little luck, things could turn around, possibly as early as this weekend.

"This team is better than a 25th-place team. I know that we will work hard and try and put a solid run together this weekend.

"If we can run well this weekend, we have some really strong tracks coming up for us on the schedule."