Mears feeling right at home with his new team at RCR

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- In his six-year Cup Series career, the knock on Casey Mears has been the lack of consistent production, despite a steady climb in the championship standings during his first five seasons.

Four years with Chip Ganassi Racing, in which he went from 35th in the championship as a rookie to 14th in 2006, set the stage for a move to Hendrick Motorsports for 2007.

Unfortunately, Mears went the wrong way in the championship, though he had highlights, like his career first victory in the 2007 Coca-Cola 600 driving HMS's No. 25 Chevrolet and a strong finish to 2008, when he scored two top-10 and four top-14 finishes while moving from 25th to 20th in the final standings.

But at that point he was already a lame duck, on his way to drive Richard Childress Racing's No. 07 Chevrolet in 2009 tuned by veteran crew chief Gil Martin, who put newcomer Clint Bowyer into the Chase two consecutive years.

Less than three weeks from the season-opening Speedweeks 2009 at Daytona International Speedway, Mears went out of his way to say how comfortable he's found the surroundings at RCR when he visited Daytona's Preseason Thunder Fan Fest on Friday.

The Bakersfield, Calif., native got a head start on '09, considered to be a pivotal season for him given RCR's expansion to four teams and the fact the longstanding organization has put all its teams into the Chase the last two years, by beginning to test in November 2008.

That continued last week at the GM proving grounds near Mesa, Ariz., and it's got Mears overflowing with enthusiasm after what was largely a three-day team-building exercise.

"The opportunity to spend the time with the team, I took everybody out to dinner, felt like it was very valuable in a lot of the things that we learned [and] hopefully we'll be able to carry it over to Daytona," Mears said. "It was definitely good to get to know the guys a little bit more. I left going, 'man, I really like these guys.' They're a lot of fun."

The most veteran teammate at RCR, Jeff Burton, said he's not had the chance to work with Mears at the track, but he's been impressed so far.

"In talking to Casey and the thing that I'm really impressed with is his enthusiasm -- his desire to be successful [and] I think that Casey is going to bring something to our company immediately," Burton said. "He's very professional, very much wants to do the right thing, wants to have success and he's willing to do whatever it takes to be successful."

Burton deflected Mears' critics. (Continued)