Casey Mears is all set to make his Dayton 500 return after a seven-year hiatus. The Californian will accomplice with Storage 66 and try to qualify on an open entry.
Mears made 5 Cup Sequence begins final yr, three of which had been with Storage 66. He competed within the remaining three races at Talladega, Martinsville, and Phoenix, ending as excessive as 18th on the superspeedway monitor.
Thanks for the submission!
It was additionally his comeback of kinds, as he beforehand competed again in 2019. This time round, he appears to be like to redeem himself on the season-opening crown jewel occasion, for he completed useless final in his final try after a Stage 2 wreck.
NASCAR reporter Joseph Srigley reported on the information, writing,
“On @SiriusXMNASCAR, Carl Lengthy confirms that @MBMMotorsports can be fielding a #DAYTONA500 entry for Casey Mears. The staff may even discipline an ARCA Menards Sequence entry for Derek White at Daytona.”
Followers embraced Mears’ return with open arms. Listed below are some reactions:
“LFG Casey Mears!!!,” a fan wrote.
“PEAK,” one other exclaimed.
“I can be rooting for Casey Mears,” an X person wrote.
“Heck yeah! Glad to see this!,” a fan stated.
“Hopefully Mike Wallace can get one other shot at it. Joyful that Mears is gonna attempt tho. Hope he makes it!,” one other penned.
65-year-old Mike Wallace was initially deliberate to run Storage 66′ Cup entry within the 2025 Daytona 500, however NASCAR’s refusal led to Chandler Smith changing him. Mears, however, has competed in ‘The Nice American Race’ fifteen occasions, together with his runner-up inserting in 2006 being his finest outcome thus far.
Different confirmed open entries embrace Jimmie Johnson, Corey Heim, and Justin Allgaier.
Casey Mears displays upon unfavourable ‘fan perspective’
Earlier this yr, Casey Mears went on the Dale Jr. Obtain podcast and addressed his close to misses because of the green-white-checkered. Dale Earnhardt Jr. requested whether or not Mears felt such late-stage cautions disadvantaged him of extra wins.
“We had three races that yr. We had been main Texas on the finish, had a warning with like 5 to go. We had been main Atlanta, had a warning with like six or eight to go. And we had been main Homestead with 17 to go. I do not assume that they did that in a method of, you understand, ‘We’d like this different man to win the race.’ No. It was purely a possibility to make the racing extra thrilling,” Mears stated.
“From a fan’s perspective, to get like a inexperienced white checkered or a late race run, it was thrilling. , I can not say that it was mistaken, you understand, however I can say it did not work in my favor.” he added.
Regardless of his in depth and storied profession, Casey Mears has only one Cup Sequence win to his title. He secured it throughout the 2007 Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
Edited by Vignesh Kanna
