Bank of America 500 - Lowe's Motor Speedway

Texaco/Havoline Team Facts:

NEXTEL Cup Series

• Standings:  Casey Mears and the Texaco/Havoline team remain 15th in the NEXTEL Cup Standings, following their 30th-place finish last weekend at Talladega.  Mears is less than 100 points out of 14th going into the Bank of America 500 this Saturday.


• Lowe’s Lowdown:  Mears will be making his eighth NEXTEL Cup start at Lowe’s Motor Speedway this Saturday night in the Bank of America 500.  His best finish at the 1.5-mile track is sixth, which he earned last fall.


• Rolex 24 Champion Autograph Session:  Mears and Dan Wheldon will be teaming up again this week in the Charlotte area, but this time it will be to meet race fans and sign autographs at the CGRFS race shop in Concord, N.C.  The 2006 Rolex 24 at Daytona winners will be signing from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. ET this Friday, October 13.  Wristbands will guarantee an autograph and can be picked up in person at the team’s gift shop or by calling 1.866.888.6388 to reserve one.


• Chassis:  The No. 42 Texaco/Havoline colors will be carried by chassis #403 this weekend at LMS in the Bank of America 500.  The chassis most recently ran at California this past September to score Mears and team their seventh of nine top-15 finishes this year.  Before that, it also was run at Michigan and Indianapolis in August, and Darlington in May.

Busch Series

• Mears' Final Double-Date:  This Friday night's race at LMS will mark the ninth and final stop on Mears' 2006 limited NASCAR Busch Series schedule.  He and the No. 42 Texaco/Havoline Busch team began the nine-race tour earlier this year, making their Busch team debut in February at California Speedway.  From there, Mears and team went on to run at Atlanta, Texas, Phoenix, Chicago and Michigan.  They also competed at LMS in May and returned to California in September to make their eighth start of 2006.  Chicago proved to be the most special run for the Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates (CGRFS) team and driver, as Mears claimed his career-first NASCAR victory at the Chicagoland track in the July Busch race.  In the first eight starts, Mears and team have scored one win, four top-five and five top-10 finishes.


• LMS Busch Tally:  Mears will be making his eighth NASCAR Busch Series start at LMS this Friday night.  The last two times he has competed in the Busch Series event at LMS, he has scored one top-five and two top-10 finishes.  In October 2004, he sat on the pole and then finished seventh in the Busch race.  His next, and most recent, Busch start at LMS was this past spring.  It began with a top-10 start (sixth place) and concluded with a top-five finish (fourth).  In all seven starts, he has only finished outside the top 25 once.  In the past three years, he has averaged a fourth-place starting position and a sixth-place finish. (Note: He has an average top-15 start and finish in his overall Busch runs at LMS.)


• Busch Chassis:  Crew Chief Brad Parrot and the Texaco/Havoline Busch team are taking chassis #654 to LMS this weekend.  Earlier this year, Mears drove this chassis to victory lane at Chicagoland and to top-five finishes at LMS in May and Michigan in August.

Casey Mears Quotes:
“I always like racing at Charlotte, because it’s home.  You get a chance to stay at your house, which is nice.  I have been here in the area long enough now that I consider it to be my home track.  So, all of that is cool, but the surface and tires are definitely a challenge.  It’s made the racing pretty difficult and the cars unstable.  Not so much because of the surface, but because of the tire they had to build.  To be able to last, the tire is so hard and that just makes the cars very unstable.  I spun out in the All-Star event and in the 600 this past May.  I hardly ever do that, so it is very tough to get your car working right because it is so on edge.”

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