Mears: Car was good from the start.

Casey Mears continued the Indianapolis Motor Speedway success story of the Mears family with pole position for Sunday's Brickyard 400 NASCAR Nextel Cup race. Casey's uncle, Rick holds an enviable record of six pole positions and four Indy 500 wins at the track.

Casey's #41 Target Chip Ganassi Dodge set a speed of 186.293mph around the 2.5 mile speedway. Speaking to the media after qualifying, Mears said the team had know they had a good car in practice and a shot at the pole, but the speed of early runners showed they needed to raise their game.

"When those guys started running those real fast times right out of the gate, Dale Earnhardt Jr put a pretty good number on the board, I went, "We're going to have to step up to the plate here," Mears said. "The guys did an awesome job. We never changed one thing on the car from the time we unloaded it. All we did was wipe it down, put tape on it, go qualify with new tires.

"As far as the lap goes, you know, I knew I put in a good lap yesterday, but I felt like I gave some up in certain areas. I knew we were going to have to be at the top of
our game and hit all the marks I possibly could. Went into turn one, the thing got a little bit loose, got back on the gas hard, come off of turn one good, but I was a little worried because on new tires, if it gets loose like
that, you're worried the next corner it's going to be even looser. A little bit timid in turn two, just a little bit, more than I wanted to be. But got through turn two really well, that gave me the confidence to go ahead and just bury it on into turn three. Turn three just went off. I mean, about the time I got out of the gas, as soon as I turned to get in the corner, I was back wide open, barely cracked the throttle for turn four. Just come off the floor just enough to get the nose to cut. And I knew if I come off of turn
four good, we had a really good shot at it, and we did. So it was pretty awesome."

Mears added that to take successive poles was a big boost after a trying time in 2003. "Last year was such a struggle. I said it a million times. But really it was. I was just so green as a race car driver, as far as driving goes in general and stock cars, you know. I mean, in IndyCars, I just didn't get the seat time that you do over here, running 36, 38 races a year. Running all those races I did last year, running the Busch races really attributed a lot to that.

"We're really chipping away at it now. You know, I mean, this year I was able to take a lot of experience and go, Okay, now, what was good, what was bad, and start applying it to this year. And it just keeps getting better all the time. We took the same setup we had there at Pocono, brought it here, and it worked great."

Mears also revealed that he had taken advice from his Uncle Rick. "He said just be patient, you know.. if things aren't right right off the bat, just remember it's a long race and get your car right, think about where the track is going. That's a big thing here. This track changes a lot. If you make the right adjustments for that last pit stop at be good at the end, it's going to be big. He said be patient, be smart, try to make the right calls in getting the car right."

Chip Ganassi, owner of the Target team that runs Mears, said hard work had got them to this level of pace. "We've been working very hard. One of the mantras in our team is we try to prepare all three cars equally. You know, that's good when things are good
and bad when things are bad. We were lucky, we were fortunate last week, I should say, we had all three cars in the Top 10. Again, this week now all three cars in the Top 10. But, boy, if I had to pick one guy to have to qualify, I'd pick this guy right on my right here. I mean, he's the guy that can qualify. It's very nice to be a part of the Mears legacy here at Indianapolis and keep that alive and keep it growing. This is just another step along the way. I like this kid and I hope he's driving with us for a long time."

Mears added that he did not look upon the family history at Indianapolis as pressure; "Just kind of an excitement, you know. It's exciting to come back to a place that has a lot of family heritage. I'm sure there are a lot of people that look at it, well, you know, his uncle was successful here in the past, he should be
successful. I think for the most part, people are realistic and they know that I'm a young guy growing up just like everybody else, trying to learn just like everybody else. Fortunately I have a strong family background in
racing and I was able to learn some things early. But I think it's just awesome, you know, to be able to come to a place where you're so well received before you even do well. Just the fans, just because my uncle has
done well here, the fans are on your side. It's neat to not only give us a good run, but to give the speedway a good run and all the fans and everybody that has
supported my family for so long. It's really cool."