Each season before the summer stretch of the schedule begins, the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series returns “home” to Charlotte Motor Speedway for two weeks. The leadoff event is the Sprint Showdown, providing two additional drivers the opportunity to compete in the Sprint All-Star Race. Casey Mears and the GEICO Racing team not only looked to transfer to the big show, but also to build their data notebook before next week’s points race, The Coca-Cola 600.
Prior to qualifying on Friday afternoon, the Germain Racing team made a substantial amount of changes to the No. 13 GEICO Ford. Those tweaks proved to be the right call as Mears placed his Fusion in the fifth starting position for Saturday night’s 40-lap event.
A brief rain shower delayed the start of the Sprint Showdown on Saturday, but once the track dried, Mears was ready to charge to the front of the field in the two 20-lap segments. During the first segment, Mears quickly reported the GEICO Ford was hitting the racetrack very hard, making it difficult to carry momentum into turn one. Despite this condition, Mears successfully ran in the sixth position. A caution-free opening segment provided a competition yellow at lap 20 to allow teams the opportunity to make adjustments on pit road.
After a quick discussion, Mears and crew chief Bootie Barker made the decision to forego visiting pit lane and gain track position at the start of the final 20-lap shootout. Leading the field to the green flag, fresh rubber quickly prevailed as Mears was shuffled back to 10th-place by lap 30. Over the final 10 laps, the veteran driver held his position to bring home a top-10 finish. While the end result was not what the team had hoped for, the GEICO Racing crew was able to gain crucial information leading into next week’s prestigious event.
“We made a substantial change before qualifying with it being an impound race,” said Mears after the Sprint Showdown. “It worked out well for qualifying, but it was hitting the track way too hard. The splitter was hitting the track so hard that I couldn’t even get into turn one. We knew we would like to come in and put on fresh rubber, but we knew we were gonna hit the track and not have a chance, so we figured we’d do all we could and that was to start up front and give it a shot. We knew if we came in and took tires we’d finish where we were or worse because it was hitting the ground so hard, and we just figured with high air pressures maybe we could smoke off a few laps and kind of hang in there, but, obviously, it fell off pretty bad. I wish we could have raced because I feel like we’ve got a good racecar. We were one change away from being pretty close and that gives us good direction for the 600, but I really wanted to go down swinging there and, instead, we were just hanging on.”
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