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[bobmcswain]

No one would ever have said that a Rick Hendrick team winning a race was an upset.

Yet tonight Casey Mears won, and it should be considered an upset. Eventhough he drives for Hendrick Motorsports, it was an upset. Mears had never won in the Cup series. Surely this 600 mile race that tests the best drivers, car builders, and teams would never be won by a driver that had never won.

Casey Mears and his team have been on the verge of winning many times. For the past five weeks they have been moving toward the top of their games. Yet they kept getting caught by racing happenstance. Superbly built equipment and parts failed. Some other drivers included Mears in their wrecks. Even tonight they had problems with batteries and a gas shortage. But they fought hard to win this one.

Casey would not give any thought to the fact that it became a fuel race and the winner was not really the race winner. Just like every other team, they planned how they consumed the fuel so that it would last just long enough. They apparently planned better than others. The #25 did run out on pit road while making its way to victory lane. But that didn’t count because he had already won the race.

How did he get his first victory? Lets go to the last 20 laps.

After 570 miles the longest race in the NASCAR season had became a fuel economy race.

As the end of race approached the word spread that all the leaders would need to stop for 1-3 seconds of fuel – just a gallon or two.

Tony Steward was leading. He was followed by Dale Earnhardt, Jr., Casey Mears, Danny Hamlin, and Jimmy Johnson. Matt Kenseth had spent quite a number of laps up front, but was in 7th. Kyle Petty was in the top 10 as he had been all night. JJ Yaley was somewhere outside the top 10.

Mears began to fall back, letting the other lead drivers pass him.

Kenseth was the first one to pit with 20 laps to go. Mears moved up one position.

With 9 to go Johnson dove into the pits for 3 seconds of gas. Mears had moved up another position.

At lap 394, #8 Earnhardt screamed onto pit road for 2 seconds of gas. Mears moved up one more position.

On the same lap #11 Hamlin turned into the pits for gas. Casey Mears was now in the lead.

He was leading JJ Yaley and Kyle Petty. His lead was 10.7 seconds.

He continued leading with 2 laps to go and never slowed for gas. The flagman waved the white flag over the #25 - one lap to go. Casey Mears drove the last lap without faltering. He captured his first Cup series race by a margin of 9.5 seconds.

Rick Hendrick said “I heard on the radio when (Crew Chief) Darian (Grubb) said we were ½ lap short. I knew Darian would go for it. “

“This is unbelieveable. I just had a 10,000 lb gorilla that just jumped off my back.”

It’s been 16 years since a Mears had been in victory lane on Memorial Day weekend. Casey’s Uncle Rick Mears won the Indy 500 in 1991. But Casey said “I’ve wanted to make my mark.”

I think tonight Casey made his mark in both the Mears and NASCAR history books.

Prodigy Member since 1985 - @Speed reporter beginning 1997