This Week’s Jack Daniel’s Chevrolet at Chicagoland Speedway …
Casey Mears
No. 07 Jack Daniel’s Chevrolet Impala SS
Event Preview Fact Sheet
Event/Date: LifeLock.com 400 - July 11, 2009
Venue: Chicagoland Speedway – Joliet , Ill
- This Week’s Jack Daniel’s Chevrolet at Chicagoland Speedway …Casey Mears will pilot chassis No. 254 from the Richard Childress Racing NASCAR Sprint Cup Series stable in this weekend’s LifeLock.com 400. This Impala SS has been raced at every downforce track after Chicago last year and has never finished outside the top 15. It was updated during the off-season and raced at Auto Club Speedway in February where engine woes spoiled a potential top-10 finish for Kevin Harvick and the No. 29 team. Most recently, Mears raced this Jack Daniel’s Chevy to a 14-place effort at Pocono Raceway in June after starting 21st.
- Chicagoland by the Numbers … Mears looks forward to Chicagoland Speedway for many numerical reasons. First, for the six races he’s run his starting average of 9.3 ranks among the top 10 of all drivers. Second, he earned one of his two career-pole awards at the 1.5.mile oval, doing so in 2007. By running 1,569 of 1,605 possible laps, he has an impressive 97.8% completion rate at this track. He won a NASCAR Nationwide Series race at Chicagoland in 2006 while driving a limited schedule that year.
- RCR is a Top Dog in Chicago … Richard Childress ranks second for most car owner victories at Chicagoland Speedway with two. Mears’ teammate, Harvick, scored back-to-back wins for RCR in the 2001-2002 Tropicana 400. In 24 starts at the 1.5-mile suburban Chicago tri-oval, Childress also boasts six top-fives and 12 top-10 finishes with eight different drivers including Dave Blaney, Clint Bowyer, Jeff Burton, Robby Gordon, Jeff Green, Harvick, Steve Park and Mike Skinner.
- Over the First 18 races … The 2007 Coca-Cola 600 winner has posted two top-10 and seven top-20 finishes. He has accumulated a 27.6 starting average to go along with a respectable 21.1 average finishing position and has completed 4,892 of 5,034 (97.18 percent) laps contested.
- Get to the Points … With eight races remaining before NASCAR set’s its 12-team playoff field, Mears & Co. sit 22nd in the championship point standings, just 39 markers in arrears to the 20th position. They are currently 358 points from 12th place, the cut off for making the Chase to the Sprint Cup.
- The Collective RCR … In 18 races this season, RCR-prepared Sprint Cup Series entries have notched seven top-five and 16 top-10 finishes. The No. 29 team kicked off the 2009 season with a win in the Budweiser Shootout at Daytona. RCR-prepared cars have also completed 20,097 laps with four different drivers including Burton , Bowyer, Harvick and Mears. Meanwhile, RCR teams have been atop the leader board for 97 laps and all four teams have earned just shy of $11 million combined purse money in 2009.
- Casey Mears Live … Casey will be signing autographs at the No. 07 Jack Daniel’s Chevrolet souvenir rig beginning at 3:30 p.m. on Saturday, July 11; a limited amount of tickets are available there prior to his arrival.
- Tune in For the Win… The LifeLock.com 400 from Chicagoland Speedway will take the green flag Saturday, July 11 at 8 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time. Race coverage will be televised live on TNT beginning at 6:30 p.m. EDT and broadcast worldwide on the MRN and Sirius XM Satellite Radio. Qualifying for the 19th race on the 2009 NSCS schedule will be televised live on SPEED Thursday, July 9 at 8:30 p.m. EDT.
- Mark Your Calendars … In honor of its 40th anniversary, RCR will host a Fan Day at the Welcome, N.C. complex on Thurs., Oct. 22 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Activities include driver and pit crew autograph sessions, self-guided tours of RCR’s Sprint Cup and Nationwide shops as well as ECR’s engine shop, radio remotes, musical entertainment, pit crew competition, viewing of the DALE movie, question-and-answer session with team owner Richard Childress and much more. General admission to RCR’s Fan Day is just $5, which will benefit the Childress Institute for Pediatric Trauma.
- Online With the Times … To keep up with the latest news and information about Richard Childress Racing and to view exclusive online content, visit the team’s official website at www.RCRRacing.com. For qualifying and finishing results, check out www.twitter.com/RCRRacing.
CASEY MEARS QUOTES: With a pole and top-five finish at Chicagoland, what is it you like about racing there: “For some reason, Chicagoland has always been one of those tracks that just works for me. I don’t know why, but it just always seems to be a place where I’ve been fast and run well. Winning the pole and finishing fifth was just a really good day for me there in 2007. The car had a lot of grip and speed that day which made for a good run.”
How difficult is the back straightaway since it isn’t actually straight: “It’s something I don’t really think about, actually. You go out there and run your first lap and remember how the track is; then it just isn’t a factor anymore.”
What’s it take to run fast at Chicagoland: “You have to have a car that is really stable. If you have a car that doesn’t allow you to enter the turns real fast, then you are going to have a harder time. At some tracks, you can sacrifice being a little free into the turns and then carry some speed through the corners to exit. Chicagoland is a track where you can’t do that going into Turns 1 or 3 because it will mess you up on exit. Those corners start very early, so you need to have all the speed you can going into them.”
