Casey Mears was the only non-Chaser to finish in the top five at Texas. Credit: Autostock

Mears races to another fourth-place run at Texas

FORT WORTH, Texas -- At this rate, Casey Mears might petition NASCAR to hold all Nextel Cup Series races at Texas Motor Speedway.

After a fourth-place run in the Lone Star State in April, Mears was at least equally as impressive in Sunday's Dickies 500, crossing the line -- again -- in fourth, which also tied Mears' career best run.

Dickies 500 Official Results Pos. Driver Start Led 1. C. Edwards 30 82 2. M. Martin 8 42 3. M. Kenseth 3 149 4. C. Mears 35 23 5. J. Johnson 11 2 • Complete Results, click here • Official Standings, click here Casey Mears at Texas Year Start Finish Led 2003 26 27 0 2004 6 7 0 2005 32 4 15   35 4 23 Averages 24.8 10.5 9.5 • Driver Page | 2005 Stats | Gear Fourth placeCasey Mears talks about his top- five finish Sign up for TrackPass now BUY YOUR NEXTEL DRIVER PHONE

"This is a good place for us," Mears said. "I think we had a car that could have competed with the 99 [Carl Edwards] for the win [Sunday]. We had a car just like this at Atlanta and nobody got to see it because we had a couple of tire issues.

"We've got a niche on these mile-and-a-half tracks.''

More than that, or at least as much as that, the flow of Sunday's race seemed to play right into the 41 team's hands.

"I was way too loose at the beginning of the race," Mears said. "We had an awesome car at the end of a run.

"We couldn't get going for about 15 laps, but we had one of the best cars out there on a long, green-flag run. After about 20 or 25 laps, there wasn't a car that could touch us, but they got so far away from us on starts and restarts.

Which made the race's final yellow flag on Lap 319 for debris all the more critical.

"I couldn't believe that last caution," he said. "I didn't see any debris, but I guess they've got to make it exciting. It cost us the race because I thought we'd go by these guys if we'd have stayed green."

Still, the decision to stay out, and not pit for new tires during the final caution period, likely saved Mears' fourth-place finish.

"I was leaning toward staying out when Jimmy [crew chief Elledge] told me to stay out," Mears said. "We could have bumped up the pressures and put on new tires, but we had been so bad on new tires that I think it would have been a bigger gamble to put on new tires."

When all was said and done, Mears led 23 laps Sunday, the most for one race since he led 37 at Atlanta -- another mile-and-a-half track -- in March 2004.

"It felt good leading the race. We needed it," Mears said. ''The guys had an outstanding day in the pits and gained a lot of spots for us. I'm really proud of them.

"In a way, this feels like a win."