Casey Mears and Sterling Marlin may both shop at the same fireworks outlet. Credit: Autostock

10 Questions: Casey Mears

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Casey Mears is gamely trying to revive the consistent competitiveness his Target Dodge team had a year ago at Chip Ganassi Racing.

Mears has only one DNF in 17 starts this season, but he also has a single top-five finish and two top-10s -- putting him 28th in the driver standings heading to Chicagoland Speedway this weekend.

During testing at Daytona in January, Mears sat down to answer 10 questions not necessarily related to his racing career.

What's your dream vehicle that you don't already own?

Wow, man, there are so many. But there are a couple things I know I really want.

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I'd love a '49 Cadillac convertible, lowered, with big white walls and flamethrowers. And another one would probably be a '50 Mercury, lowered down.

And then, as far as new cars -- man, there are so many new cars that I'd love to have: Ferraris, Porsches -- there's just a ton of them out there that I'd love to have.

Why the '49 Cadillac?

I don't know -- there's just something about them. Probably five, six years ago I started getting in on that.

My dad and I went to a car show and there was a '48 Buick and I just loved the look of it. And then I saw a '49 Cadillac right next to it, and I liked the look of that just a little bit better.

So someday I'd love to get a '49 Cadillac and have it completely restored.

If time on the road weren't an issue, what would be your ideal pet?

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Probably a Lab -- a dog -- a Labrador. I really like cats and I'm actually kind of a cat guy right now, because I have two cats at the house.

But if I had more time I'd probably have a Lab or a Golden Retriever or something like that.

What's your biggest pet peeve while driving on the road?

People that don't move over when they're in the fast lane. That drives me crazy. In California everybody's pretty good about doing that going through L.A.

I notice that back East it's a little bit different. You catch some people just cruising in the fast lane and that drives me crazy.

What's the worst state for that? I'd think Florida and North Carolina would be pretty bad?

Yeah, I don't know. California is usually pretty good and North Carolina is definitely a lot worse.

And Florida is bad, too, because you have a lot of retirees down there, just cruising around.

Racing means travel, so what's your worst hotel experience?

Actually it was in Homestead, when I was racing Indy Lights. We stayed at, I don't even think it was a Super 8 -- it was just called the "eight hotel" or something like that.

It had carpet from like 1965 -- and it was brown. And when I moved the coffee table it was orange.

So it was bad and it smelled like formaldehyde in the bathroom. It was horrible and there were cockroaches and cracks in the ceiling. It was not good.

Did you get any kind of discount for that?

Casey Mears: No, but we definitely got out of there. We spent one night and you put your shoes on to walk to the bathroom. It was pretty bad.

What's your favorite food?

That's a good question because I love food in general -- but probably Italian food. I love pastas and stuff like that.

Is there any place on the road where you've got to go, to get Italian or any other kind of food?

This is probably not going to sound real good, but when I go out to California I've got to have an In 'n Out burger. I absolutely have to do that when I go out to California or Las Vegas -- Phoenix -- the West Coast swings.

Credit: Autostock

And then in (Talladega) there's a place that we always make called Top of the River (in Anniston). We get fried catfish and real Southern food. It's pretty good, too. Sterling told me about that.

If you had to choose, would it be being honest, or being nice?

If I had to choose between the two -- being honest or being nice? I don't know -- that's kind of hard, because I like both of them. I'd probably have to say honest.

What's your fondest childhood memory?

Shoot, I don't know because there were so many good memories when I was a kid. I think it depends on what age bracket you're talking about.

When I was three or four years old it was me and my neighbors playing in the mud on the side of the house, with the Hot Wheels.

You're a single guy so you can answer this honestly. What would your dream date be? Where and with whom?

These questions, man! I don't know who my dream date is -- you know what I mean? I really don't, honestly.

I think you find that, somehow, without expecting it that it's your dream date. But there's no one that stands out in my mind right now that would be a dream date, so I don't know how to answer it.

What's your worst prank, either perpetrated by you, or done to you?

Aaah -- the worst prank?

Would it be Sterling Marlin at Talladega?

Yeah, that was probably the worst one. I just had a real bad one but I can't share that.

Credit: Autostock

Yeah, it was probably Sterling at Talladega, to this point. He got us in my rookie year, when he got all the rookies, me and Jamie (McMurray) and a few of the guys that hadn't really been on the team long.

They got us all in this van, like we were supposed to talk to Chip (Ganassi) after our big first test. So we're all in there, kind of nervous about talking to Chip for the first time, after our first test.

And (Sterling) threw, like, a quarter-stick of dynamite under the van. And we all hit our heads on the top of the ceiling trying to get out of the van real fast.

But we got him back. We threw some stink bombs and fireworks in the back of his car on the way out, so we got him back, pretty good.

What would you consider your "Welcome to NASCAR" moment?

I think when I finally felt like I was a part of NASCAR, was probably sitting on the two poles last year. That really made me feel like, "Hey, we're a contender and we can sit on poles and run up front."

Before that, several of the guys moved me around, plenty. Tony Stewart, at Loudon just completely body-checked me -- just went in (to the corner) way too hard and just slammed me and put me off in the marbles.

That was my first year and I'm sure I was probably doing something that was probably not quite right in front of him and I wasn't aware of it, yet.

So that was the rude introduction, and the good introduction was when we sat on those poles last year at Indy and Pocono.

Tony Stewart has actually body-slammed a few people.

Oh yeah. And it wasn't just him. Several guys did -- and I'm sure I did something to deserve it.