By Mike Mulhern
MEDIA GENERAL NEWS SERVICE
Published: May 8, 2008

DARLINGTON, S.C. - It’s not just the game of dominos that Tony Stewart started a few weeks ago, by mulling over his own future, but the month of May traditionally is a crucial month for NASCAR drivers and crew chiefs who haven’t won much lately, in part because sponsors are always hungry for more.
Among the drivers whose future is being debated is Casey Mears, although he still has another year on his contract with Rick Hendrick.
Mears, a popular guy, particularly with teammates Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon, hasn’t been as big a winner as those two have, but he will come to Charlotte’s Lowe’s Motor Speedway later this month as the defending Coca-Cola 600 winner.
Only he hasn’t won on the Sprint Cup tour since. He hadn’t won before, either.
Pressure? Worried about his ride?
“I feel good,” Mears said. “We’re solid for next year, and definitely focused on moving forward. Rick has stated that several times—that things are where they’re going to be, and we’re moving forward.
“We’re just getting started again. It’s kind of an unfortunate thing, but it seems I’m in this situation almost every year—because I’m constantly changing teams and constantly spending the first half of the season trying to grow and learn with that new team.
“The biggest thing that obviously we need to see happen with this team is that it stays consistent, and obviously get this full year under our belt.
“Alan (Gustafson, his crew chief) and I were just talking the other day how we feel like we’re just now kind of starting to feel like we’re getting on the same page.”
Still, after five-plus seasons on the tour, it’s natural that he might be nervous. Johnson and Gordon are nervous too, in another sense—after two great seasons, they have had a sluggish start to 2008. The winged car that NASCAR has teams are driving is to blame, they say. So they, and most fellow drivers, were glad to get a couple extra days of testing this week at Lowe’s Motor Speedway.
That should help in next week’s All-Star race and in the 600 the next week.
What any of that might mean this week at Darlington Raceway, with its new asphalt, smooth and 200-mph fast, is anybody’s guess.
But the two drivers to watch here are Ford’s Carl Edwards, a three-time winner already this season for Jack Roush, and Toyota’s Kyle Busch, sizzling hot for new owner Joe Gibbs. And probably Denny Hamlin too, if he can get those gremlins back in the can.
Mears was making some headlines last weekend, but not the ones he likes to read. He and Michael Waltrip got together, and it cost both of them. Waltrip was parked by NASCAR for the rest of the race for retaliation.
“Initially it was our fault,” Mears said. “I wasn’t aware he was on the outside of me. I don’t know if we just had a radio problem or what happened. But we were running by ourselves for quite a while, and I think Michael came out on new (faster) tires and was running us down, and I just wasn’t aware of it. And I came off turn four and hit him. I had no idea he was there.”
It’s typically up to the spotter to keep his driver aware of brewing situations such as that.
“I can understand why he’d be upset, because it definitely wasn’t really his doing,” Mears said. “But obviously, afterward, what he did wasn’t right.
“I can understand the emotion and being upset, but you definitely don’t want to do something like that.
“Obviously he realizes that too, and we’ll all move on.
“Honestly I was just so mad we got in a wreck period, I hadn’t even thought about it (NASCAR parking Waltrip). The last thing we needed was that.
“We need to continue to move forward in the points, and we were sitting in a good position to move up to about 18th or 19th in points; and we ended up getting stuck 23rd.
“I didn’t have time to get mad at Michael, I was just mad at being crashed.”
The winged car that Mears is running at midsize tracks this season is quite different than the regular car he won with in last spring’s 600.
“We’re getting around the tracks pretty well, but in a pack it’s a little bit more difficult to drive,” Mears said. “When someone is on the outside of you they tend to get a lot looser. And the aero-tight (a disinclination of the car to turn in the corners) is a good bit worse.
“They’ve been more difficult to drive—and I think that’s one reason why the tracks are opening up into more grooves: because guys are trying to get away from each other.
“When you get to these bigger tracks, where the aero comes into effect, you see us a little bit further apart. We’re just not quite as much side-by-side because it’s not as comfortable to run side-by-side with these cars.”
So what can NASCAR do with these winged cars to help the drivers and crew chiefs?
“That’s a good question,” Mears said. “There are definitely things we could do. But I leave that stuff more up to the engineers and crew chiefs to figure out.
“Right now we’ve got a good product. It’s putting on good races, we’re having fun with it. But to think anything can come out brand-new and be perfect right out of the gate, everybody knows that’s not the case.
“It’s a great car, it’s a safe product. We put on some good races with it. But is there room for improvement, absolutely. Obviously I think they’re considering that, and all the teams are looking at it as well.”