{"id":1042,"date":"2011-08-08T08:00:51","date_gmt":"2011-08-08T12:00:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/inspiringathletes\/?p=1042"},"modified":"2011-08-16T12:11:05","modified_gmt":"2011-08-16T16:11:05","slug":"a-conversation-with-nascar-driver-casey-mears","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/2011\/08\/a-conversation-with-nascar-driver-casey-mears.html","title":{"rendered":"A conversation with NASCAR driver Casey Mears"},"content":{"rendered":"

Click “Like” to share this with your friends!<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Casey Mears (Photo by Chris Graythen\/Getty Images for NASCAR)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

With an uncle like four-time Indianapolis 500 winner Rick Mears and a dad like Roger Mears who had successful runs in the open wheel and off-road circuits, most might assume that Casey Mears would have been destined to follow in those sizeable footsteps. While Mears did try his hand at Indy racing, he ultimately found his way into the NASCAR ranks with stints at Ganassi-Earnhardt, Hendrick Motor Sports and Richard Childress Racing.<\/p>\n

After racing for four different teams in 2010, Mears has finally settled back in to a comfortable situation with up-and-coming Germain Racing behind the wheel of the Geicio-sponsored #13 car. Inspiring Athletes sat down with Mears in his hauler at a race late last season where he talked about dealing with the uncertainties of racing, drawing strength from his family and growing in his faith:<\/p>\n

Chad Bonham: How often do you think about what your last name has meant to auto racing?<\/p>\n

Casey Mears: I don\u2019t think it\u2019s something you think about until after your career is over. I\u2019ve been very fortunate to have both my dad and my uncle be successful in the sport in different aspects from the off-road stuff to the Indy Car stuff. As a kid, it was a lot of fun growing up in the sport. It gave me some advantages, for sure, in pursuing rides. I don\u2019t that I need to live up with what they\u2019ve done but I definitely want to hold the name proud. The more successful I am and the better I am, the easier it is to do that. But at the end of the day, I know that I\u2019m carving my own path on the stock car side of things. I don\u2019t think about it a whole lot.<\/p>\n

Bonham: Are you surprised to have wound up in NASCAR?<\/p>\n

Mears: I always loved off-road. I had a blast doing that. I really thought I was going to go the open wheel route when I started racing. I dabbled into Indy Cars some and I thought that was going to be my path, but out of the blue I got an opportunity to come over here. I\u2019m glad I did because clearly it\u2019s the place to be right now when it comes to racing in the U.S. I really enjoy it.<\/p>\n

Bonham: You\u2019ve raced with big teams like Hendrick and smaller teams like now with Germain. What\u2019s the difference?<\/p>\n

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Trevor Bayne (left) talks to Casey Mears (right) during practice at the NASCAR Sprint Cup Brickyard 400 in Indianapolis (Photo courtesy of NASCAR)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Mears: What\u2019s really cool about this situation is that I\u2019ve gone to those big teams but I\u2019ve been the third or fourth wheel. I never looked at it from that standpoint as I signed with those programs. I just thought, here\u2019s a team with a bunch of resources and thought it would be a great place to be. And they are if they focus on you. It\u2019s difficult to go to a place like Hendrick with Jimmie (Johnson) and Jeff (Gordon) there and (Dale Earnhardt) Junior at the time when you\u2019re not the main focus. When we had issues, it was difficult to get things squared away. It\u2019s a great place to be. Great people, obviously. Amazing equipment. But you\u2019ve got to have a great crew chief and engineers that believe in you. That\u2019s what\u2019s great about being here. Yeah, it\u2019s a smaller team, but we have the resources of (Michael Waltrip Racing) and when it comes to drivers, I\u2019m the main focus. They listen to what I have to say and work around what I need.<\/p>\n

Bonham: How has marriage and fatherhood changed your perspective on racing and life?<\/p>\n

Mears: (Having a family) makes it great. My daughter is amazing. She\u2019s so much fun. And (my wife) Trish has been outstanding through everything that\u2019s gone on the last couple of years. It\u2019s really fun to have them around. NASCAR is the type of sport that caters to having family around. If I was playing football or baseball, my family couldn\u2019t travel with me. We get to have a home on the road which is nice. When you have a baby, a lot of people give you flack like maybe you\u2019re going to start thinking about things more or maybe you won\u2019t try as hard. But to me, it\u2019s been the reverse. The fact that I\u2019ve got this little human being relying on me to provide for her, it makes me want to be that much more successful and work harder than I ever have. It\u2019s more rewarding when you do well.<\/p>\n

Bonham: How has faith played a role in your personal growth?<\/p>\n

Mears: I still have my personal battles with understanding all of what encompasses a full amount of faith. But I think that it\u2019s really cool to have the chaplains around. I learn a lot at the racetrack through them. When you\u2019re having issues, whether they be personal or at the track, it does it make it easier to know that there\u2019s something much bigger than yourself. It\u2019s easy to step back and remind yourself to not let it completely ruin your day. There\u2019s a bigger picture that we\u2019re here for and it allows you to be more comfortable and relaxed during times of turmoil.<\/p>\n

Bonham: Is the faith community different here in NASCAR than what you experienced while part of Indy Racing?<\/p>\n

Mears: It\u2019s a real similar feel. It\u2019s been 10 years since I\u2019ve been there but probably one of the biggest influences in me understanding the Bible better was Hunter Floyd. He was a chaplain on the Indy Car circuit. He was really cool. He had been in racing a lot of years and didn\u2019t become a chaplain until later in life. He had been through a lot of the things that us drivers had been through, so he was a good guy to lean on. Depending on how you wrap your arms around it, I think both are trying to accomplish a lot of the same things. Now, on the NASCAR side of things, MRO has a lot more support than (Indy Car\u2019s ministry has). They\u2019re able to do a little bit more. But it\u2019s definitely great to have them around.<\/p>\n

Bonham: What do you get out of chapel services?<\/p>\n

Mears: I want to spend some time reflecting and learning. I do it when I have time. Our time is demanding. There\u2019s times when things are going on and I can\u2019t go. It\u2019s a little bit of a getaway. Dover is a great example. We\u2019re sitting there in church and they bring in these kids from the inner city of Philadelphia and they sing for us. It just touches you to see kids that sing as well as they do and seeing them believe as much as they do. You walk away with a good feeling. Racing\u2019s a very difficult outlet for the chaplains. It\u2019s a very busy sport. It\u2019s a very self-absorbed sport. It\u2019s, \u201cWhat can you do for me now and how can you do it quicker and how can we go faster?\u201d It\u2019s a great outlet to go in there and reflect a little bit and remember that there\u2019s a lot bigger purpose than just you going out there. I always walk away feeling good. It\u2019s just a bunch of people in there trying to be better. I enjoy it.<\/p>\n

Bonham: Does your new ride at Germain Racing ease some of the anxieties you may have experienced over the past few seasons?<\/p>\n

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Casey Mears driving the #13 Geico Toyota<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Mears: Knowing your fate is huge. Going into the tail end of last year and the first part of this year, there was so much uncertainty to each week. It was stressful. Who am I going to race for next week? How am I going to get a paycheck? Those things are difficult. So being with this team and this organization and knowing there\u2019s a goal and we have future, it definitely lets you focus more on today than worrying about what\u2019s happening tomorrow. This is a group of great guys. We\u2019ve got fast cars and we\u2019ve got a good product. It\u2019s supported through MWR with a lot of information. There\u2019s a lot of optimism that we can do really, really well. I didn\u2019t know what to expect coming in here. But everybody does a really good job. Hopefully we can excite some people and figure out how we can run a full season. If we have full sponsorship, we\u2019ll be inside the top 35 and we\u2019ll compete for the top 15 by the end of the year. That\u2019s a very realistic goal. There\u2019s a no reason why we can compete with the top guys.<\/p>\n

Keep up with Casey Mears by visiting his official website HERE<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Click “Like” to share this with your friends! With an uncle like four-time Indianapolis 500 winner Rick Mears and a dad like Roger Mears who had successful runs in the open wheel and off-road circuits, most might assume that Casey Mears would have been destined to follow in those sizeable footsteps. While Mears did try…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":418,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,382,388,5],"tags":[502,507,503,505,504,487,426,508,506,198,509,500,501],"class_list":["post-1042","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christian-athletes","category-qa","category-racing","category-sports-features","tag-casey-mears","tag-dale-earnhardt-junior","tag-earnhardt-ganassi-racing","tag-geico","tag-germain-racing","tag-hendrick-motor-sports","tag-jeff-gordon","tag-jimmie-johnson","tag-michael-waltrip-racing","tag-motor-racing-outreach","tag-richard-childress-racing","tag-rick-mears","tag-roger-mears"],"yoast_head":"\nA conversation with NASCAR driver Casey Mears - Inspiring Athletes<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/2011\/08\/a-conversation-with-nascar-driver-casey-mears.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A conversation with NASCAR driver Casey Mears - Inspiring Athletes\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Click “Like” to share this with your friends! 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Chad is currently working on five new books including Sooner Legacy, Husker Legacy and Lessons From Sooner Football (Cross Training) as well as The Faith of Stock Car Racing (Judson Press). When he's not writing, Chad lends his efforts to various independent television and film projects. He was the coordinating producer for Choosing Life (2010) and Life Happens (2011). Chad is currently serving as producer on a forthcoming documentary about Super Bowl champion Brian Kinchen. Chad and his wife Amy live in Broken Arrow, Okla., with sons Lance (September 2003), Cole (February 2008) and Quinn (February 2011).","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/author\/cbonham"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1042","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/418"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1042"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1042\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1255,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1042\/revisions\/1255"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1042"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1042"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1042"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}