Casey Mears entered his sixth full-time season in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series in 2016 driving the No. 13 GEICO Racing Chevrolet for Germain Racing. The racing veteran also just finished his 14th year in NASCAR’s premier series.
The year prior, in 2015, did not go according to plan and entered the brand-new season in 2016 looking to gain more traction.
Mears and the No. 13 racing gang did not finish where they would have preferred in the season opener at Daytona. The California native would start and end one of the most iconic races in the world in the 32nd spot. The next two races, at Atlanta and Las Vegas, Mears would take his No. 13 Chevrolet to a 14th and 23rd-place finish. The team would then struggle again the very next week at Phoenix where they would end the day in 35th.
The very next week at Fontana they would find themselves inside the top-20 once again with a 17th-place run after starting the event in 23rd. Martinsville, race No. 6 on the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series calendar, they would start 18th on the grid and finish the day with a disappointing 31st. Over the next three weeks, at Texas, Bristol and Richmond, Germain Racing would capture three top-30 finishes for the first time of the season.
Then Talladega. The 2.66-mile oval is always circled on the calendar for small teams as there have been surprise race winners there in the past. The Germain Racing team would end up starting 20th. On lap 60, Mears would be involved in a three-car crash that involved Aric Almirola and Michael Waltrip over in turn three. He would continue and stay out of trouble for the rest of the day to finish 33rd.
Over the next four races, Kansas, Dover, Charlotte and Pocono, Mears would walk away with finishes in the top-30. His best finish among those four events would come at Kansas Speedway, where he would take his No. 13 GEICO Chevrolet to a 21st-place finish. At Michigan, race No. 15 on the series schedule, Mears would find himself involved in an incident over on the backstretch that involved Brian Scott and Danica Patrick. Like Daytona, Mears would continue and finish in the 32nd spot.
The next week, at Sonoma Raceway, the first of two road course events on the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series calendar, Mears would qualify 14th for the event. He would then take his No. 13 Chevrolet to a 24th-place finish, giving the team some momentum as the series headed into the second half.
The Coke-Zero 400 in July at Daytona would go much smoother than the Daytona 500 for Germain Racing. The July race at the 2.5-mile oval would give Mears and the single-car operation their best finish of the season. Mears would end up with a 12th-place finish after starting the day in 20th.
Looking to use Daytona as momentum, Kentucky Speedway did not continue that. Qualifying would be washed out and would place Mears 28th to start the race. He would end the race with a 30th-place finish as the series went into the second-half of the season.
New Hampshire Motor Speedway, race 19 of 36 and the beginning of the second-half, would be a slight turning point for Germain Racing. The team would qualify 21st and would later finish 27th. Over the next seven events, Indianapolis, Pocono, Watkins Glen, Bristol, Michigan, Darlington and Richmond, Mears would finish well into the top-30. At Watkins Glen, the second and final road course event for the series, Mears would tie his best finish of 12th at Daytona with another 12th-place run. That streak would come to an end at Chicago where Mears would end the Chase opener 34th.
Over the next two races, at New Hampshire and Dover, Mears would once again capture a pair of top-30 finishes in the No. 13 Chevrolet. In race 30 at Charlotte, after having a clean season without a DNF, Mears would finish 40th after he and Alex Bowman would get together over in turn three on lap 63. The crash would end both driver’s chances of finishing.
At Kansas Speedway, race 31 of 36, Mears and the Germain Racing team would find some luck. Mears, who started the race in 29th, took his No. 13 Chevrolet to a 23rd-place finish in the Hollywood Casino 400. This gave the team much needed momentum going into Talladega.
Mears would start the Hellman’s 500 at Talladega in the 28th position. Though, with the size of the track, it isn’t hard for a driver to quickly find their way upfront as you can advance or lose positions there rather quickly. Looking to continue the momentum found at Kansas, that would not be the case. Mears day would be finished after an accident on the frontstretch that also involved Greg Biffle and Jeffrey Earnhardt on lap 115.
Martinsville would be another good week for the No. 13 racing team. Mears would start the event in 26th and finish Sunday afternoon in 21st. Once again, the team had momentum going into the next race at Texas Motor Speedway. That momentum, however, would not continue as bad luck would strike again. After qualifying 13th, which ended up being their best starting position in 2016, Mears would end up placing 39th after getting into a crash on lap 264.
The team found momentum in the final two races of the season at Phoenix and Homestead. Mears would start 22nd and 23rd and take his No. 13 GEICO Racing Chevrolet to an 18th-place finish in both events. It would end a long season for the small team and driver.
Mears would end the year 28th in driver points – five spots lower than in 2015. He also ended the year with three top 15 and six top 20 finishes. He finished 94.7% of the laps ran in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series in 2016.
The outlook for Casey Mears is uncertain as Germain Racing will welcome Ty Dillon to the No.13 racing team. Dillon, a brother of Austin Dillon, will run his first ever full-time season in NASCAR’s premier series in 2017.
Dillon already has starts in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series. In 18 career starts, Dillon’s best finish in the series came with a 14th-place run at Michigan International Speedway.
In 111 NASCAR XFINITY Series events, Dillon holds one win, 29 top five and 70 top 10 finishes. The one and only win came at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in July of 2014. In the Camping World Truck Series, Dillon holds three wins, 19 top five and 35 top 10 finishes through 53 starts.
About Me: Brett has been following the sport of NASCAR since the beginning of the 2006 NASCAR Sprint Cup season. Since Brett was 13, he has had a passion of chasing a job in sports that not many get the opportunity of doing. He has been in the NASCAR media since the middle of the 2010 season. Since then, he has been a part of many racing podcast shows to improve his talents. He has written for racingonfuel.com and theracingwheel.com. Currently, Brett writes for motorsportsnat.com and TracksideChatter.com. You can find him on twitter @NASCAR_Brett.
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