An aching Casey Mears climbed from the No. 83 Red Bull Toyota Sunday afternoon feeling pretty good, despite the rough treatment on the track.
After agreeing to sub for the ailing Brian Vickers, Mears qualified 39th for Sunday's Autism Speaks 400 at Dover International Speedway. He went on to finish a respectable 22nd, crossing the line three laps down from the leaders.
“All things considered, finding out about this on Thursday, getting here, getting [a seat] fitted – my back definitely is a little sore – and trying to work through some of that stuff, I think everybody did a good job tackling what we needed to tackle this weekend,” he said.
“[No. 83 crew chief] Ryan [Pemberton] made a good decision there at the end to go ahead and stay out and get the wave around and then kind of hang on until the end of the race.”
Vickers’ stand-in started quickly, moving up eight spots in the first few laps before settling in behind teammate Scott Speed in the No. 82. The pair of Red Bull Toyotas then went a lap down 100 laps into the 400-lap race. Changes on the No. 83 in early pitstops made the car worse and Mears lost ground to Speed. He eventually recovered and moved ahead of Speed in the final stages, finishing one place ahead of him.
"Considering the way things were, the way the car handled, we've come out with a pretty good finish." –Casey Mears
Mears got the call to drive after Vickers was taken to the hospital in Washington, D.C. Wednesday evening with pain in his chest. Doctors discovered blood clots in Vickers’ legs and lungs and put a red light on any racing. Vickers was released from the hospital Friday night and is scheduled to meet with specialists in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Mears happily answered his friend’s call when it came, but stepping in on a moment’s notice wasn’t easy. “It was a long day. I thought we'd be a little bit better, but we were kind of mediocre,” he said.
“There were so many guys – those top two or three guys were running so much faster... We ended up several laps down, unfortunately, but a lot of guys did. We hung in there all day. I think, considering the way things were, the way the car handled, we've come out with a pretty good finish.”
After missing the Dover race, Vickers dropped seven spots in the standings to 27th in points, 276 outside a top-12 Chase for the Cup position. The good news is that the NASCAR Sprint Cup will take next weekend off to run the All-Star Race at Charlotte, which will give Vickers some time to recover.
None of that helped ease the pressure for Mears, who lost his full-time ride at the end of last season due to sponsorship issues and has been trying to impress enough in a part-time role this year to find a permanent job.
“Man, I always think there's pressure on me. No matter if you're Jimmie [Johnson] winning championships or a guy in my position — there's always pressure to do well. If he's running second, he's running badly,” Mears said.
“We’ve got different goals. You’ve just got to do the best job you can week-in and week-out. This is a very unique scenario.
“Obviously, I hope Brian gets better soon. In the meantime, we're working real hard to try to maintain the best we can so when he comes back, he'll have something good to get into.”
Getty Images for Red Bull Racing Team
Speed started 29th and fought a tight car for the first half of the race and then ran into trouble with the No. 82 getting too loose after adjustments. Everything finally came together for Speed with about 35 laps to go, but by then it was too late. He ended the day in 23rd, four laps adrift of the leaders.
"For the most part, we struggled at Dover all weekend, so coming out of the race in 23rd is a pretty reasonable finish," he said. "It's actually the best finish we've had here as a team. This track is the toughest one we compete on and it's really been a thorn in our side every time we come here. So overall, we're improving and making progress and those are good things."
The result keeps Speed 26th overall in points, 249 outside the top-12 and one position ahead of Vickers.
Stay on track with the latest from NASCAR.com, or go to the home of the Red Bull Racing team. You can also leave a get well soon message for Brian Vickers on Facebook.
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