Casey Mears will drive the No. 5 Chevrolets for Hendrick Motorsports in the 2008 Sprint Cup Series, joining a team that secured its second consecutive Chase for the Nextel berth Sunday at California Speedway. In his first season with Hendrick Motorsports, Mears has notched one victory, a pole position, four top-five finishes and six top-10s through 25 races. The Bakersfield, Calif., native will complete the current schedule in the organization’s No. 25 Chevrolets before transitioning to the No. 5 team, which will continue to be sponsored by Kellogg’s and Carquest. The effort will be led by Alan Gustafson, 32, who has earned four wins, two poles, 25 top-five finishes and 45 top-10s since his first season as crew chief of the No. 5 Chevrolets in 2005. Only five Cup Series teams have posted more top-10 finishes during that span.
Casey Mears gambled his way to his first Nextel Cup win, stretching his fuel to the finish line in the Coca-Cola 600 on Sunday night. It put a Mears back in Victory Lane on the biggest day in racing for the first time since 1991, and the nephew of four-time Indianapolis 500 champion Rick Mears was overwhelmed by the moment. Struggling through his first season at elite Hendrick Motorsports, Mears ran strong all night at Lowe’s Motor Speedway, but only took the lead when others ducked onto pit road for a splash of gas.
The No. 25 team - considered the weakest of Hendrick’s four-team fleet - pushed its Chevrolet to the finish, finally running out of gas moments after Mears took his first checkered flag. It was Hendrick’s fifth straight win and the ninth in the past 10 Nextel Cup races, but came from the unlikeliest driver.