Mears, Hendrick to part ways

kelloggs5TLfan

kelloggs5TLfan

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after 2008 season.

http://www.nascar.com/2008/news/headlines/cup/06/27/cmears.leaving.hendrick/index.html

By Team Release
June 27, 2008
09:55 AM EDT

CONCORD, N.C. -- Hendrick Motorsports and driver Casey Mears will part ways following the 2008 Sprint Cup Series season.

mears.mug.jpg

Casey Mears

"We've put a ton of emphasis on the No. 5 program," said Rick Hendrick, owner of Hendrick Motorsports. "It's been a total team effort, and Casey has worked as hard as anyone to help us improve. We've tested more than we ever have, but the results just haven't come.

"None of us, Casey included, have been satisfied with the situation this season. But he's confident there are other options out there for him in 2009, and we feel like Hendrick Motorsports will have some opportunities, too."

Mears will finish the 2008 Sprint Cup campaign in Hendrick's No. 5 Chevrolets.

"I know the effort has been there, but we haven't had the finishes to show for it," Mears said. "I've never tested this much or put more energy into racing. But for whatever reason, we just haven't been able to make it click. It's certainly not for lack of dedication on anyone's part.

"I'll talk to people about opportunities and get my 2009 plans wrapped up soon, but I'm also focused on the next 20 races and finishing 2008 on a positive note. We ran well the second half last year, and I know we can do it again. I want to close this season the right way."

Hendrick Motorsports will announce its 2009 plans at a later date.
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If he could add Stewart/Truex/Newman or something like that, it'd become a complete dream team.
 
Ward Burton said:
If he could add Stewart/Truex/Newman or something like that, it'd become a complete dream team.
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Yeah, they have a woppen two wins this season. Even after hiring "the best driver in nascar"
The drivers dont make the team, the cars do
 
RCR4Life said:
Yeah, they have a woppen two wins this season. Even after hiring "the best driver in nascar"
The drivers dont make the team, the cars do
Click to expand...
no, the owner's finacial and physical input towards the team does.
 
Johnson, Gordon disappointed that Mears will be leaving
/ NASCAR Scene

LOUDON, N.H. – Casey Mears was a groomsman in Jimmie Johnson’s wedding. Johnson was one of the first people to congratulate Mears in victory lane after Mears won his first NASCAR Cup race in the 2007 Coca-Cola 600 at Lowe’s Motor Speedway. The two were close friends before they were teammates at Hendrick Motorsports.

So Friday’s announcement at New Hampshire Motor Speedway that Mears and Hendrick would part ways at the end of the 2008 season affected Johnson on a personal level.

“I feel really bad for Casey and for the No. 5 team,” the two-time defending Cup champion said. “There has not been a lack of effort to get that team working right and a situation has developed to where Casey is going to move on. It hurts me as a friend and a teammate that this is taking place. I know it’s done the same to the company and to [team owner] Rick [Hendrick] but it’s kind of the way it is.”



Johnson and Mears began their careers racing together in the off-road ranks on the West Coast. Roger Mears, Casey’s father, is considered one of the best off-road racers of all time and was one of Johnson’s racing mentors. Johnson and Casey Mears were teammates at the off-road level before they became teammates in NASCAR.

Knowing that Mears won’t be his teammate for a third straight season in 2009 bothers Johnson, but he says that Hendrick Motorsports must look forward.

“The decision has been made,” Johnson said. “At this point I wish Casey the best. I’m doing anything and everything I can to help he and his team out to finish this year off on a positive note. He had a great run at Sonoma last weekend and I hope he goes on a tear and wins five races and is the hottest driver out there and has everybody chasing him down for his services.”

Mears has just three top-10 finishes in 16 races this season.

“It’s disappointing,” teammate Jeff Gordon said of the decision. “Casey is a good friend of mine, has been for a long time before he came to Hendrick. He is a great race-car driver - it’s just things haven’t clicked over there. I think that you go back to last year and I still believe that we made all the right calls and decisions and if we had to do it over again I think we’d do the same thing. You can’t always make these things come together the way you want them to. They’ve got to happen naturally and on their own and for whatever reason it just hasn’t happened.


“I know it was a very, very difficult decision for Rick because of the way personally that we feel about Casey. But this is a big business and I think Casey understands that and Rick understands that and the decision was made.”

As for the pressure to perform at Hendrick – an organization with seven Cup championships, all since 1995 – Gordon admits there is plenty.

“I do think that coming to Hendrick Motorsports … with the bar that has been raised it makes it very difficult for anybody to come in, but [Dale Earnhardt Jr.] has come in and done a great job, so it’s not impossible,” he said. “It’s hard to get four teams all clicking all at the same time – it really is. We’ve been in it long enough when we had three teams. Now with four teams sometimes you look at it and you go, ‘I don’t understand how these guys are doing so well,’ and then other times you look and you go, ‘I don’t understand why they’re not doing well.’

“It’s just people and timing, and there’s a lot of things that factor into what makes it work and what doesn’t make it work, and unfortunately you give it time and then a decision has to be made and usually somebody gets that short end of the deal."
 
There we go again, saying hendrick is a 3 team + weekly R&D organization. While mears is slightly overrated i think, and Mark Martin isn't going to do much betetr if he does indeed end up in that car, Hopefully Hendrick will figure out he just needs to give the team to Junior Motorsports.
 
RCR4Life said:
Yeah, they have a woppen two wins this season. Even after hiring "the best driver in nascar"
The drivers dont make the team, the cars do
Click to expand...

Jr or Jr. nation does'nt claim he's "the best driver in nascar" at least real fans does'nt. He is VOTED the most popular.
 
Wasn't it just last lear Hendrick said Casey would be there many more year"S"....oh wait many more year.....Nice job Rick:p
 
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