Mears wins, adds to family legacy

CONCORD, N.C. – Casey Mears looked wide-eyed around Victory Lane, astounded by the celebration surrounding him.

He 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.

“My uncle won four races on this day, and what a special day just because of that,” Mears said with tears in his eyes.

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.

Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson and Kyle Busch have all won races this season, but Mears came into the race 35th in the standings with only one top-10 finish.

So when Mears reached the Victory Lane celebration – where his parents were sobbing with pride, he needed a moment to make sure it was real.

“Actually, let me look at this for a second,” he said, turning to look at the scoring tower.

J.J. Yeley, like Mears considered one of the drivers in jeopardy of losing their ride to make room for free agent Dale Earnhardt Jr., finished second for the first top-five finish of his career.

“This is probably the first time in two years of Cup racing I didn’t catch the bad break,” Yeley said.

Kyle Petty was third – his first top five in 10 years.

Reed Sorenson was fourth, and Brian Vickers was fifth in the highest finish this season for Toyota.

Tony Stewart, who seemed to have the win in the bag after Johnson gave it away in the pits, wound up sixth after figuring he was two laps short on fuel and had to make a late stop.

Ricky Rudd was seventh, followed by Earnhardt and Denny Hamlin. Johnson, who came into the event with five wins in the past eight races, wound up 10th after his crew dropped a lug nut with 62 laps remaining.

Johnson had led 82 laps and was out front when he brought the field into the pits. But his Hendrick crew made a rare mistake while changing his tires, lost time, and Johnson came out of the stop in 10th place.

Stewart, meanwhile, had a flawless stop and came out of the pits in first. He led Mears and Earnhardt on the restart with 59 laps to go.

But Stewart worried he wouldn’t have enough gas to make it to finish. His pit stop put Earnhardt out front, but he had to stop for gas and it turned the lead over to Hamlin.

But Hamlin went in for gas with five laps left, putting Mears out front.

In an unusually hectic start, 18 cars were involved in two accidents less than 150 miles into the event.

Jeff Gordon, Elliott Sadler, Juan Pablo Montoya, Ryan Newman, Kurt Busch, Jeff Burton and A.J. Allmindinger were among the drivers who were unable to finish as a result.