The Germain Racing team arrived in Watkins Glen, NY, fresh off of a busy week that saw them head straight to Atlanta for a two-day test just after posting a strong run at Pocono, where they finished 12th. Spirits were high when they unloaded the No. 13 GEICO Chevrolet SS for practice on Friday.
The weekend got off to a quick start when Mears ended the opening practice session 16th before improving to 14th in happy hour. In qualifying, he would tour the 2.45-mile upstate New York road course in an expeditious 69.273-seconds, placing him 22nd on Sunday’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series starting grid.
Ideal weather and packed grandstands watched on as the green flag got the Cheez-It 355 at The Glen underway on Sunday. Mears rolled off from the 22nd position, but made quick gains, moving up to 15th by lap 14. The No. 13 GEICO Chevy was strong all day and was scored as high a s 4th, but ran solidly in the top ten. Mears’ heart rate escalated on lap 56 when he narrowly avoided the hard crashing cars of Ryan Newman and Michael McDowell. The incident resulted in an 80-minute red flag that saw track personnel rebuilding the safety barriers. When the race returned to green, Mears was in the fourth position, but a few laps later settled into ninth.
With just 17 laps remaining in the race, Mears’ GEICO machine began to wheelhop as he entered the bus stop portion of the racetrack, sending him for a spin that caused the loss of valuable ground. Fortunately, he was able to immediately dive down pit road where the Germain Racing crew quickly refreshed his car with four tires and fuel and, most importantly, kept him on the lead lap. Mears returned to the racing surface in 27th and began hustling through the field and recapturing lost positions. When Denny Hamlin and Alex Kennedy got together with three to go, it left the race outcome in the hands of a green-white-checker finish. Mears and the No. 13 GEICO Chevy survived the wild final laps and crossed the finish line in the 15th position, accounting for the team’s eighth top-15 finish of the 2014 season.
“We had a solid day and it’s nice to have two top-15 finishes in a row,” Mears said. “Once we were able to get the brakes cooled down, it helped a lot. We also did a nice job of recovering from the spin and finding our way back to the front. I’m proud of everyone on this GEICO team for hanging in there and making good things happen. We’ve had two strong races in a row, so we hope to continue the roll at Michigan next week.”
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