For the second time this season, Casey Mears will wheel the No. 13 Valvoline™ NextGen™ Ford Fusion in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series for Germain Racing. This time, Mears will put the NextGen colors before Valvoline’s hometown crowd at Kentucky Speedway— a short drive from Valvoline’s global headquarters in Lexington, KY.
“Kentucky is a good racetrack and it’s fun to go to a venue that the Cup Series hasn’t gone to a lot,” explained driver Mears, noting the delicate balance between handling and aero one needs to succeed at the 1.5-mile oval. “(The track) has a big uphill on the front stretch and an elevation change outside of turn four. It’s bumpy and a challenging track because you have to have your car handling right but also get the splitter as low as you possibly can to have some grip.”
Considering the top-20 finish the team secured in their debut of the Valvoline NextGen paint scheme two weeks ago at Michigan, this Germain Racing group has high hopes for the No. 13 Ford Fusion in Saturday night’s 400-mile event. “We certainly want another top-20 result for the Valvoline NextGen Ford. Kentucky Speedway is the home track for the folks at Ashland, Inc. and we’d love to give them another strong finish like we had for them at Michigan,” said crew chief Bootie Barker.
“Our team is very different heading into this race than where we were a year ago. Our equipment is improved, our team is more organized and focused and we are able to utilize our relationship with Ford and Roush to continue to grow the vision that Bob Germain had for Germain Racing for this season. We are really looking forward to putting our Valvoline NextGen Fusion on track before the Kentucky fans.”
To date Casey Mears has collected ten top-25 finishes in sixteen races in 2012. The effort has locked the No. 13 team solidly into the top-35 in NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Owners Points which means the team can focus on race trim during the practice sessions rather than working solely on qualifying trim as in years past. After 16 events, Mears ranks 28th in Sprint Cup Series points, a position he has held since the seventh race of the season.
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