MT. PLEASANT, Mich. — For Casey Mears, the road to a milestone 500th career NASCAR Cup Series start got a little sidetracked thanks to the intervention of Mother Nature seven weekends ago at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway.
But it continues in earnest for the 48-year-old driver on Sunday with the Great American Getaway 400 at Pocono Raceway, where the veteran racer will finally get his first chance to strap into the No. 62 Gracie Foundation Chevrolet for family-owned Beard Motorsports.
Wet weather on qualifying day April 25 at Talladega sent Mears and the Beard team to the sidelines before they ever had a chance to turn a lap.
It was to be Mears’ 496th career Cup Series start, and his and the team’s first of five races together this season, to be followed by the July 26 Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, the Aug. 29 Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway, the Oct. 25 YellaWood 500 at Talladega, and the season finale Nov. 8 at Homestead-Miami Speedway. The latter outing will mark career start No. 500 for Mears.
But before his thoughts turn to milestones, Mears is focused on something much simpler this weekend – getting back behind the wheel.
“The biggest thing is just looking forward to getting to the racetrack,” Mears said. “After showing up to Talladega and being the only car that goes home, that was no fun. Just knowing that we’re going to the racetrack and have an opportunity to go racing and get to know all the guys on the team a little better and go out and have some fun is the plan.”
That opportunity was denied at Talladega when qualifying was washed out. With the field set by NASCAR metrics that include owner points, the Beard entry, with zero owner points, became the lone team left out of the 40-car field.
“For sure it was disappointing,” Mears said. “I felt like if we would’ve had the opportunity to qualify, we definitely would’ve been in. That was probably the frustrating part, knowing one of the better cars was going home. But that’s the way the sport goes. You can’t control the weather.”
Now the focus shifts to one of NASCAR’s most unique venues. Pocono Raceway, known as “The Tricky Triangle,” presents challenges unlike any other track on the schedule. Its three corners were modeled after three different speedways, creating a setup compromise that teams spend entire weekends trying to solve.
That challenge becomes even greater for Beard Motorsports, whose 34 previous Cup Series starts over the past nine seasons have come almost exclusively the superspeedways at Daytona and Talladega. This weekend represents the organization’s first appearance at Pocono.
For Mears, however, the 2.5-mile triangle feels much more like home. He owns 28 career Cup Series starts there, highlighted by a pole position in 2004 and a pair of top-10 finishes during the 2007 season for Hendrick Motorsports.
Before that, he dominated a memorable ARCA Menards Series doubleheader weekend in 2003, sweeping both races while leading 103 of 160 laps driving for owner Chip Ganassi.
Those experiences provide confidence heading into an otherwise uncertain weekend.
“Anytime you go back to a place where you’ve had success at any level, it makes you feel good about going back,” Mears said. “Those ARCA races were super dominant. The car was super fast, and it was great to get a couple of wins and get momentum going in the right direction.”
Pocono’s unique layout also played into Mears’ strengths during the early stages of his NASCAR career.
Coming from an IndyCar background, he arrived with extensive experience shifting gears and adapting to diverse track configurations – skills that proved valuable at a venue many stock car drivers found challenging back in the day.
“I’ve always liked the track,” Mears said. “I feel like I adapted to it pretty early on and had speed right out of the gate.”
Even so, there are plenty of unknowns awaiting him this weekend. Although Mears and Beard Motorsports have spent months preparing for their run this season, Talladega’s weather-shortened weekend means neither side has yet experienced a single competitive lap together.
“We haven’t had any on-track activity to have any gauge of where the car may or may not be,” Mears said. “We’re kind of going into this with a lot of unknowns. But they’re prepared. I’ve been speaking a lot with (crew chief) Darren (Shaw) and (co-owner) Amie (Beard-Deja), and Darren’s saying all the right stuff as far as things they’re working on with the car.”
The team’s attention to detail has earned Mears confidence. Since making its Cup Series debut at the 2017 Daytona 500, Beard Motorsports has built a reputation for maximizing opportunities despite its limited schedule.
Powered by ECR-built Chevrolet engines, the organization has recorded eight top-10 finishes in just 34 Cup Series starts, including Noah Gragson’s fifth-place finish at Daytona in 2022.
While much of that success has come on superspeedways, Mears believes the meticulous approach required to compete at those venues can translate elsewhere.
“The majority of the ability to excel at the superspeedways goes out the window at a place like Pocono, but the attention to detail that it takes at a superspeedway is key,” he said. “The relationship between the bottom of the car and the ground is so important these days. Anything that can reduce friction and drag is huge. There’s stuff they’ve probably done with their superspeedway program that applies.”
