Ask any race car driver, and more often than not, they’ll likely say the same thing: that you never lose the desire to drive and win.
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Even if you’re 87 years old like legendary Richard Petty, if he had his youth and competitive drive back — even if for just one race — there’s no question he’d eagerly once again climb back behind the wheel.
Casey Mears can relate to that. He ended his NASCAR Cup career with Germain Racing back in 2016 at the age of 38. And other than a one-off start in the 2019 season-opening Daytona 500 (once again for Germain Racing, where he finished last in the 40-car field), Mears conceded that his long-time racing career had come to an end.
Well, that is, until this past Sunday’s Cook Out 400 NASCAR Cup race at Martinsville Speedway.
Even after being away from racing for more than six years, the now 47-year-old Mears was lured back once again, driving the No. 66 GoHitchGo Ford owned by Carl Long (who is also the car’s crew chief), finishing 35th in the 38-car field, 11 laps behind race winner Denny Hamlin.
But even with the disappointing finish, don’t be surprised if that STILL isn’t the last race Mears will ever run again. He woke up a long-sleeping urge and now that he’s once again scratched the itch, so to speak, we’ll likely see Mears again at some point in the future, maybe even more than once.
Mears had a near-constant smile throughout Wednesday’s Dale Jr. Download with Dale Earnhardt Jr., talking about the whole experience of what brought him back to Martinsville.
Even though it’s the smallest (.526-mile, paperclip-shaped oval) and slowest track on the NASCAR Cup circuit, racing once again was unquestionably a ton of fun for Mears.
“Everybody had a great time throughout the weekend,” Mears said. “We didn’t run like we wanted to. I had that conversation with you (Earnhardt) prior to the race and I did a good job of soaking it all in and enjoying my family being there, looking up in the grandstands and appreciating all the fans that had positive things to say throughout the weekend.”
“God, I had people who flew in from different states who hadn’t been at a race for eight or 10 years and said, ‘Man, we just came to see you.’ And I was like, damn, that really hit home for me. It was a personal good feeling that you had such an impression like that on somebody throughout your career.”
Earnhardt, who was formerly teammates with Mears at Hendrick Motorsports, told Mears before the race to soak in the atmosphere, as there’s little to compare it to in any other part of life.
“I love to just scratch the itch,” Earnhardt said about his occasional one-off race starts in the Xfinity Series. “I’ll be brutally honest: when I was running those Xfinity races once a year, I was lucky to be able to just say, ‘I’ll just run one a year’ and had this really successful team to do it.”
“But I would get halfway through the race and say, ‘Meh, I’m pretty good, I’ve got everything I needed. Whatever happens, happens, I’m going to finish this race.
“I loved the smells and the sounds. I loved that there’s a moment where you get done with intros and you’re standing by your car and you’ve got your kids there and your wife, and there’s a little bit of time to be with them and watch them… I never did that when we were full-time.”
Mears Agrees With Earnhardt’s Philosophy
Mears, who now lives with his family in the Phoenix, Arizona area, readily agreed with Earnhardt.
“No (you really can’t appreciate it because) you’ve got a damn gun to your head,” Mears said. “You’ve got the sponsors looking at you that you want to do good (for), you have the team to prepare for, in your heart you want to go out and beat every damn guy out there and you have this intensity on your mind.
“When you’re trying to do it at the top level, to beat the best guys in the world, you don’t have time to sit back and say, ‘Oh man, it’s really cool to be here.’ You’re there to beat these guys.’”
