NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
AUTO CLUB 400
AUTO CLUB SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT
MARCH 21, 2015
CASEY MEARS, NO. 13 GEICO CHEVROLET SS, met with members of the media at Auto Club Speedway and discussed the new 2015 rule package, working with the Richard Childress Racing (RCR) alliance, his time spent on the West Coast and many other topics. Full Transcript:
TALK ABOUT YOUR PERSPECTIVE OF THE WEST COAST SWING AND SOME OF THE THINGS YOU HAVE BEEN DOING WHILE OUT HERE:
“I think it has been good. I think it was a great idea to put them all together. It can make for a long three weeks for guys that stay all the way out. I think getting all three of these races kind of knocked out in a row has been good. Vegas was a pretty good day for us, Phoenix we had a really fast race car and we are looking forward to this weekend. I had a rough go at it yesterday. The car wouldn’t turn very well at all, but excited about being here in my home state and hopefully have a good race on Sunday.”
HOW IS THE ALLIANCE WORKING THIS YEAR? ALL THREE TEAMS SEEM TO BE RUNNING A LOT BETTER. CAN YOU TALK ABOUT THAT A LITTLE?
“It’s been really good. Not a whole lot has changed from last year to this year other than the fact that we have a year under our belt with RCR and understand who to talk to. I think understand more the details. Our guys really spent a lot of time this off-season, obviously there were rule changes, but nothing that directly affected how we build our cars. We were able to take a lot of time and take the cars that we have and focus on the details. Make sure that we really get the bodies right. We get our chassis and everything from RCR but we build all our bodies in-house. And understand exactly how they do it and applying that to what we do has been a big key. Also, just really focusing on weight getting weight out of the cars, the guys did a good job of that in the off-season. Then just improving communication, it is one thing to get a sheet of paper that says ‘hey here is the set-up’. But when you actually go up and put your arm around the guy that is actually setting that car up and looking at his procedure and understanding how he does it there are a lot nuances. The devil is in the details. I think that we have paid closer attention to a lot of those details and it is starting to pay off.”
ARE YOU USED TO BEING A ONE-CAR TEAM? WOULD IT BE BENEFICIAL IF YOUR TEAM WOULD ADD IN THE LONG TERM OR SHORT TERM FUTURE A SECOND CAR?
“I think that with the budget that we have it has been a lot easier to focus on a one car program. If we were able to get a well-funded second program in with the team I think would be beneficial. The alliance with RCR has bridged that gap a lot. But there is nothing like walking around the shop and looking at what the guy next to you is doing and maybe having an in-house teammate that you communicate a little bit better with or maybe see more often. For right now I think that we got the best scenario that we could get as far as an organization. RCR has been really great. Like I said, we are not on their priority list, but we get the majority of everything that they have. It’s been a good relationship.”
HOW HAS THE NEW RULES AFFECTED THAT AND GETTING THE TECHNICAL ALLIANCE WITH RCR HOW HAS THAT AFFECTED YOUR DRIVING AND THE CAR?
“It’s hard to say for me exactly how the rule changes have affected us. It’s a little bit less downforce, but Goodyear has brought a different tire pretty much everywhere. So, from the perspective of knowing exactly what the aero changes and the horsepower difference did. It’s kind of tough to tell because if we were going back with the same tire at a lot of these places it would be a really equal comparison.
“But quite honestly Goodyear can build a tire that can make the cars go way faster or go way slower. They have done a good job of building a tire that typically has been a little softer everywhere we have gone. It has made up a little bit for that downforce decrease. I think that is why you have still seen the speeds pretty high.
“I think eventually guys want to go more that direction, maybe a little more downforce out of the car allowing Goodyear to maybe build a softer tire. If we can build a softer tire over course of a run you will see more fall off. I think when you see more fall off you see more passing. Some guys will be really good at the beginning of a run and other guys will be good at the end of a run, kind of like it was years back. I like the direction we are going, but to tell you the differences is tough, because it really hasn’t been apples for apples. The horsepower thing is very noticeable. Especially once we went to like Phoenix and for the first time had a little bit shorter track. Coming off of (Turn) 2 you notice the horsepower decrease, but quite honestly it’s been pretty seamless as far as adapting to the changes.”
YOU HAVE THREE TOP-20 FINISHES IN THE FIRST FOUR RACES. DID YOU HAVE ANY EXPECTATIONS EARLY IN THE SEASON FOR 2015?
“I think we all have lofty goals. We know we’ve got good equipment. We’ve got a good group of guys. So, we all want Top 5’s and Top 10’s, but I think we kind of told ourselves that if we could be consistent inside the Top 10 or Top 15, the first part of this year and establish a good base, we’d be pretty happy with that. But, now that we’ve seen the pace that we’re capable of running part of this year, we’re slightly disappointed with some of our results.
“We had a really good car in Vegas and the first run we took two tires, and it just didn’t work out for us and we went a lap down and it ended up being one of those races where you could never get a lap back. And we had a car that was very fast once we made a couple of adjustments and got it tightened-up. We only feel like we came short on that one a little bit. In Phoenix, we had a very fast race car again; Top 10 easily. The first run we were flying through the field and after the first pit stop the right rear spring came out of the bucket and we didn’t know until after the race. And it made the car massively loose.
“So, I think our goals were very conservative to start the year, but now that we’ve seen what we’re capable of and how fast we have been able to run, I think internally our goals are getting a lot higher. But I think we’ve just got to kind of stick to what we’re trying to do. In this series, if you can be a Top 15 or Top 20 guy, week in and week out, you’re going to be in a good position coming into the season. And one thing I’m noticing too, is that if you’re inside the Top 15, you’re running lap times that are capable of anywhere from fifth to 15th, to be honest. If you’re a Top 15 guy, you’re a call away from being a Top 5 guy. And so, we just continue to really focus to be Top 15 and with being Top 15, you’ve got opportunities to finish way higher than that. So, that’s been our goal and we’re going to kind of stick to that and see how it goes.”
COMING UP, WHAT TRACKS DO YOU SEE WHERE WHAT YOU’VE ACCOMPLISHED SO FAR WILL HELP YOU?
“Aside from yesterday’s practice and qualifying, I was really pleased with how we ran at Vegas and Atlanta because the 1.5-miles have been our Achilles Heel as a program. And the ones that I know we can run really well at are Martinsville coming up next we. It’s a good track for us. We’re looking forward to Richmond. Obviously the superspeedways and road courses are all places where we can run really well. So, I’m looking forward to a lot of them. But, my perspective has changed. When I first came to this series, from running open wheel cars, the 1.5-mile were the bread & butter, the places that I liked going to the most. And it’s where we qualified the best and the fastest.
“And ever since I’ve been at Germain Racing, and as we’ve been working on this program, have been the places that have been the hardest to get recently. And I think a lot of it is just because of the details. We’re a small team and it’s kind of been growing. We haven’t been able to put a lot of effort into our aero program. And this least off-season, we really have. And they’ve paid attention to those details and I think that’s why we’re starting to see results on the 1.5-miles and 2-miles as well.”
THERE ARE SEVERAL NASCAR DRIVERS WITH ROOTS IN CALIFORNIA. WHY DO YOU THINK THAT IS? AND HOW DOES IT FEEL TO BE RACING AT ‘HOME’ WITH THE CUP SERIES HERE AT AUTO CLUB SPEEDWAY?
“California is a big state. So there are a lot of options for a lot of people to be involved in motorsports. But, it’s a big racing community. It’s funny because you can get in the heart of L.A. sometimes and maybe it gets a little bit lost. But when you get to the outskirts and the surrounding towns of some of the major cities, there is a lot of racing going on. It’s funny to know that there’s actually three guys from Bakersfield in NASCAR at these levels. It’s cool to see that. Obviously I raced with (Kevin) Harvick a little bit. He was always a class ahead of me, just because of his age, in Go-Karts and stuff like that. But it’s funny because my sister in law actually babysat Ryan Reed (laughter).
“So, it’s a small world. I didn’t think that I’d be in this series and see a kid come up from my hometown. So it was cool to see his success at Daytona. And, obviously Harvick has had an amazing last year and is continuing to have a good year. Hopefully, I can start getting our stats up there and we can make it a three-winner.”
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