Mears races Squidward Tentacles Chevrolet to Top-20 at Kansas

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Water, though from the sky, not the sea, was quite the headline leading into Saturday night’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series “SpongeBob SquarePants 400” at Kansas Speedway. The threat for storms had remained consistent throughout the week. Despite this, the Midwestern fans came out to see 43 of NASCAR’s finest drivers competing to take home the SpongeBob trophy. The race started a few minutes ahead of schedule under dry but cloudy skies and finished in the wee hours of Sunday morning following a two hour red flag period for a noisy rain storm that rolled through the area.

Germain Racing driver Casey Mears’ No. 13 Chevrolet SS sported a special paint scheme for the event. It was adorned with the likeness of one of SpongeBob’s co-stars from the animated Nickelodeon series. Squidward Tentacles, SpongeBob’s neighbor, was the title star of the No. 13 Chevy. The SpongeBob SquarePants show is a huge hit in the Mears household, and, the Squidward Tentacles race car was quite popular with the driver through much of Saturday night’s 267-lap race.
 
From the 24th starting position, Mears found that the Squidward Tentacles Chevy SS was very competitive. Early in the race, he asked crew chief Bootie Barker for some slight chassis and air pressure adjustments. Soon after, Mears enthusiastically told Barker the Squidward Tentacles Chevy SS was “not bad!”

Mid-way through the 400-mile race there was a set of tires that produced a radically different handling characteristic for Mears to muscle through, but, it proved to only be a temporary departure from Mears being very confident in the Squidward Tentacles Chevy’s abilities. As the laps drew to a close and Saturday night’s race trailed over into Sunday morning, it seemed certain that the Germain Racing crew and driver had put the No. 13 Chevy in position to contend seriously for a top-15 finish.

Mears headed off into the last long green flag stretch of the race knowing he’d need to visit pit road for a quick splash of fuel sometime before the final ten laps of the race. On lap 257, Mears was on pit road for the scheduled stop when the caution waved for an accident in turn two. The timing of the caution flag left Mears one lap down to the leaders.

As the field circled under the yellow flag, Barker called Mears back to the attention of the Germain Racing pit crew. They outfitted the Squidward Tentacles with fresh Goodyear tires and a splash more fuel for what would be the final restart of the race at lap 262. Mears was quickly able to pass a handful of race cars and secure a 19th-place finish when the checkered flag waved. His hustle accounted for Germain Racing’s fifth top-20 finish of the season and, more significantly, signals their continued improvement on NASCAR’s intermediate sized racetracks. Mears also gained a position in the point standings where he re-entered the top-20.

“Our Squidward Tentacles Chevy SS was really good tonight. I feel like we were good enough that we could’ve finished 15th, easily. We had one tire set that just made the car really lose rear grip, but, I felt like we were really able to race tonight. The Germain Racing crew did a great job all night. I’m looking forward to our next two race weekends at home at Charlotte Motor Speedway,” said Mears, who finished 3rd in last year’s Sprint Showdown and has visited victory lane at Charlotte’s tough 1.5-mile track.

Next weekend is a non-points race event for Germain Racing. Mears will pilot the No. 13 GEICO Military Chevrolet SS in the Sprint Showdown, Friday, May 15th, vying for a transfer spot into the main event, the Sprint All Star race at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Follow all the Sprint Showdown and All Star action on FoxSports1, or tune into your local PRN affiliate.

PMI PR

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