Casey Mears narrowly escapes collision, secures qualification at Daytona
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Casey Mears spun on pit road, briefly became stuck in the infield grass, and narrowly avoided a last-lap crash by mere inches. Despite these challenges, he secured an eighth-place finish in a qualifying race on Thursday night for the Daytona 500, which was sufficient to qualify him for “The Great American Race.”
Mears fought back tears three times after making it into the 41-car lineup as the top-finishing “open” car in the first of two 150-mile qualifying races. Anthony Alfredo claimed the final position in the starting grid during the second qualifier.
“I was concerned when we got stuck. I feared going two laps down,” Mears stated. “I actually got on the radio and urged the team to remain calm, saying, ‘We still have a chance here.’ Sitting in the grass was definitely not a good sight.
“I can’t believe it. After everything, being in a position to race in the Daytona 500 on Sunday, I thought that was beyond our reach for most of the race.”
Joey Logano from Team Penske triumphed in the first race, while Chase Elliott from Hendrick Motorsports won the second. Both drivers had already secured their spots in NASCAR’s season opener and will start from the second row on Sunday.
Mears is competing for Garage 66, a team owned by former driver Carl Long, which has only 10 employees present in Daytona. The 47-year-old driver is aiming for his 500th career Cup Series start and received financial support from former NASCAR team owner Bob Germain to participate in Daytona.
Mears, who last raced full-time in 2016, will be making his 495th start on Sunday. With his future uncertain, his wife and 14-year-old son booked two separate flights from their home in Phoenix. His daughter has a cheerleading event in Las Vegas, and they were either headed to support her or to Florida to watch Mears in the Daytona 500.
“I couldn’t be happier that they’re taking that flight to Orlando. Gosh, dang, man, I got emotional. It means a lot,” he expressed. “It truly means a lot. Especially now, you know what I mean? My kids were younger when I was racing. Even before I resumed this last year, I asked my son about, ‘Do you remember this or that?’ He didn’t recall. He was too young.
“To return and do it now, my kids, at their current ages, understand that what dad did for a living is impressive.”
Similar to Mears, Alfredo was also emotional after qualifying for the Daytona 500. This will mark his third appearance in the race.
“My career has had many ups and downs, and you never know when you’ll get another opportunity to race on any Sunday, especially the Daytona 500, the Great American Race,” Alfredo remarked. “I’ve only been this emotional twice in my life: the day my daughter was born and when I made the Daytona 500… missing it last year has haunted me until this very moment.
“This is the only thing that could lift that dark cloud.”
Logano won the first Daytona 500 qualifying race when a crash in overtime cost Corey LaJoie the position that went to Mears.
Logano, driving a Ford for Team Penske, was in control of the race when a caution for a five-car incident with four laps remaining brought out the yellow flag. Logano maintained the lead on the restart for the two-lap sprint to the finish and faced no challenges before the final crash ended LaJoie’s chances and secured Logano his fourth victory in a Daytona qualifying race.
Logano is a three-time Cup champion who won the Daytona 500 in 2015.
“I believe we have a strong race car, obviously a fast one, as we demonstrated,” Logano commented. “There are definitely areas I want to improve, no doubt. It’s always like that. We need to maintain speed. We’ll work on some handling aspects, but I feel like we’re quite close.”
Elliott, the 2020 NASCAR champion, has now won the qualifying three times.
“A fantastic way to get the adrenaline going for sure on a Thursday night,” Elliott said. “It’s nice to secure a win for the NAPA Chevy. Not a 500. I’ve been here before and not the other one, so you have to learn to take it one day at a time.
“A great way to kick off speed week for our team. I’m proud of our effort, everyone at Hendrick Motorsports, the boss, from top to bottom. Good night. Looking forward to Sunday.”
The four drivers who did not qualify for the 41-car field were LaJoie, B.J. McLeod, Chandler Smith, and JJ Yeley. Two spots were secured in Wednesday night’s time trials, which went to Justin Allgaier and Corey Heim.
Kyle Busch won the pole in time trials as he seeks to win his first Daytona 500 in 21 attempts.
Source: espn.com
