Ep. 343 | Casey Mears

Ep. 343 | Casey Mears

From The Racing Writer's Podcast by JB15 Network

March 9, 2026 · 41 min · Season 9 · Episode 343

About this episode

Casey Mears discusses his underdog journey in the Daytona 500 and reflects on his racing career.

Casey Mears had one of the best stories of the Daytona 500 when he qualified for the race in the single-car, underdog operation that is Garage 66 for Carl Long. A few weeks removed from the event, Mears shares how it has carried on; taking apart the Atlanta car to run in Daytona but that being the game plan; the visual of the torn apart car in the garage; comparing the moment to others from his career; choosing to come back so many years after his full-time career ended, and doing it with an underdog team; sharing this side of his life with his children who are now older to understand; the emotions of the first few races back in the NASCAR garage; the difference in being a driver today and living the full-time driver life; the realization that his full-time career was over; the feelings on what was his full-time career and any what if moments; things that almost happened in career such as getting to Penske; the impact of having raced for many big name car owners; managing to not have enemies or negative things said about him; anticipating the feeling of hitting 500 starts; the plans for the rest of the season. Original music created by Tony Monge. Follow me here…

People in this episode

Host: Kelly Crandall

Guest: Casey Mears

Topics covered

  • Daytona 500
  • NASCAR
  • underdog teams
  • racing career
  • fatherhood
  • emotions in sports

Keywords

  • Casey Mears
  • Daytona 500
  • Garage 66
  • NASCAR
  • racing career
  • underdog team
  • fatherhood
  • Penske
  • emotions

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Garage 66, Carl Long, Penske

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