Mears doesn't feel like a small fish in a big pond (cont'd)

"I didn't look at it like that. I looked at it like, 'Why would I want to go to a team with less experience and less credentials?' Because I want to win. Obviously it has proven that it is a place that can provide the tools for you to do that."

He said that he doesn't like to think of himself as that fourth spoke on the wheel at Hendrick because it's not how he believes he is treated.

"I don't really look at it the way everyone else seems to," Mears said. "People from the outside look at it that way, but I don't. In no way, shape or form being a part of the Hendrick organization am I ever treated that way. Am I getting lesser equipment? Are they not putting the same amount of effort behind our program?

"I mean, yeah, I don't have the background of the race wins. And obviously Dale Jr. is his own media blitz without anything else going on around him. Jimmie and Jeff are champions and winners of all those races. But to me, it's just a plus to be part of Hendrick Motorsports and to be part of a team that has guys with those kinds of credentials that I can learn from and gauge off of."

The way Wheeler gauges drivers, Mears is well on his way to blossoming into one of the sport's stars. He certainly has the right bloodlines. His father, Roger, was an off-road driving legend who also raced in two Indy 500s and four Truck Series events (and now drives Casey's motorcoach). His uncle, Rick, was a four-time Indy 500 winner.

"I think he could be a great race driver," Wheeler said of the younger Mears. "For some reason or another, that third [or fourth] Hendrick car has always been a challenge. When he made the move from Ganassi to Hendrick, I thought that would be a good one. But he's in the shadows of Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon, and that's tough. And now he's got Junior coming over, so that's going to be interesting.

"But what I like about him is that he's very consistent. If you watch him later on in the race, it tells you something. I don't pay much attention to guys in the first two-thirds of a race, as far as judging a person's talent. I watch how they run the last third -- because they're tired, the track is usually slick, and all that kind of stuff. And he just seems to keep going, and he's also very good on a slick racetrack -- which is so important. That was one reason why [Dale] Earnhardt was so great.

"[Mears] learned that coming up with the off-road stuff and all the stuff that he did. So he's also very, very smart and very articulate. And he's going to win races with his brain. To a certain extent, with the computer guys in the pits and the better crew chiefs that we have, they figure all the strategy out. The one thing that they can't do is they can't think for the driver on the track. When you get to tracks like Martinsville and Dover, places like that where how a driver goes through the corner and how a driver uses his brakes can absolutely make a difference on whether the car is going to be in the top five at the end, in that last quarter of the race, you need someone like Casey."

Mears finished a respectable 14th in points last year, but ached to add a victory to his Cup resume. Now that he has one at Charlotte, like with the fish he caught in Lake Norman this week, it only has fueled his passion to pull out more.

If he can do it, he said he has no doubt that the fame and attention now showered on the other Hendrick drivers will someday be heaped on him, too. But he doesn't crave that.

"I don't race because it's just fun and if I get 15th, oh, that's great," Mears said. "I mean, I'm here to win races. That's what I want to do. I grew up winning races. Every series that I've been in, I've won races. And that's why I do what I do. I'm not content with where I've been the last few years as far as our position in points and the results. I'm in the right place right now to really capitalize on all the good information they have. ... Getting the media attention those guys are going to get, if you're winning races, that's going to come. It just naturally comes. But it's also a part of racing that doesn't make you faster on the racetrack.

"I just enjoy going on a racetrack. I love racing. I love going fast. And right now I think I have the best opportunity to do that."