Mears benefits from out-of-whack events at Coke 600

	Thanks to Casey Mears' win near Charlotte, the Hendrick Motorsports team has won eight of its last 11 Nextel races. AP

CONCORD, N.C. -- The old saying is that only the strong survive the long, grueling test known as NASCAR's 600-mile marathon.

Well, forget the strong; by the end of this year's edition, fans in the stands were wondering if anyone would ever make it to the finish with their car in one piece.

In one of the wilder Coca-Cola 600 nights in recent memory, two vicious crashes eliminated several top contenders, setting the stage for a late-race showdown between the few remaining superstars going head-to-head with a bunch of unlikely underdogs. In the end, it was the underdogs that ruled the day, as Casey Mears snagged his first Nextel Cup victory in his 156th career start, followed by four drivers who all scored their best finishes of the year : J.J. Yeley, Kyle Petty, Reed Sorenson and Brian Vickers. Sitting in the garage to watch it all happen? Point leader Jeff Gordon, polesitter Ryan Newman, and Greg Biffle, amongst almost two dozen drivers snakebit by either a wreck or a mechanical failure.

For Mears, a win ensures long-term job security in the face of constant rumors his job was in jeopardy after Dale Earnhardt, Jr. declared himself a free agent. Even though Mears is in his first year with superpower Hendrick Motorsports and is best friends with teammate Jimmie Johnson, he'd underachieved so much this year that Hendrick had to make a public statement at Charlotte he had no plans to change his future driver lineup -- just to calm the media firestorm surrounding a possible switch. Just 35th in driver points entering Sunday night, Mears had watched helplessly these past four months while his three teammates went out and ran roughshod over the series; but while Gordon, Johnson, and Kyle Busch were busy sipping the bubbly in Victory Lane, winning eight times in 11 starts, Mears was usually busy trying to pick up the pieces of another wrecked race car.

"I think a lot of people don't realize exactly what we've gone through this year -- the stuff that we've got caught up in, the little bit of bad luck that we've had, having several good runs and then just being at the wrong place at the wrong time," said a relieved Mears after his win. Even the Hendrick teammates themselves had contributed to the bad luck of the No. 25, with Johnson spinning out his teammate at Talladega, en route to taking away a possible top-5 finish last month.

Clearly, Hendrick understood that and has been willing to be patient with a driver that has already shown with time he can succeed with a new organization. Mears endured some similar first-year struggles over at Chip Ganassi Racing, suffering through a 35th-place points finish his rookie year before improving dramatically to place 22nd in Year Two.

"We were rebuilding a team this year," added Mears of his stint in the No. 25. "Not completely, but rebuilding in a lot of areas. It's been frustrating, but I think that this definitely solidifies us as a team that's out there to win races and run up front. This team gets better all the time, and I'm really happy with the progress we're making."

With a Nextel Cup win finally under his belt, he's also breathing a giant sigh of relief.

KEY MOMENT

On lap 338, a debris caution caused by Brian Vickers slapping the wall in Turn 2 set the stage for what would turn out to be a fuel-mileage battle to the finish. Mears came down pit lane for tires and gas during that final caution and then agreed with crew chief Darian Grubb's decision to gamble, running the final 61 circuits without stopping again. As several of the other contenders around him dove down pit road, including late-race leaders Tony Stewart, Johnson, Earnhardt and Denny Hamlin, Mears conserved fuel and stayed on track, taking the lead for the first time on lap 395 and holding on to take the win.

HOT NUMBERS

334

That's the number of Nextel Cup races run since Kyle Petty last had a top-5 finish in the series, a streak that was finally put to bed with his surprising third-place run on Sunday night. While fuel mileage and luck certainly played a part in the final running order at Lowe's, don't be fooled; Petty's car was strong during the race's second half and was a solid Top 10 car for the majority of the night after getting his lap back through NASCAR's Lucky Dog rule on lap 270. "Everything finally came together for us," exclaimed a satisfied Petty after the race, his wife, Pattie, by his side as the two basked in the glory of the first podium finish for him since a third-place run at Dover in September 1997.

Ironically, that's where the series heads next week, making it a good place for the momentum for the No. 45 team to build before Petty steps out of the cockpit for five races for his broadcaster role at TNT.

75%.

That's the percentage of races won by Hendrick Motorsports, which has now prevailed in nine of the 12 Nextel Cup races this season, including the last five straight. This group is perhaps more balanced than it's ever been; all four teams running under the Hendrick banner have won a race this season, and we're only at the end of May. There's no telling how much further Hendrick's dominance will go at this point.

ADDING FUEL

• The longest race of the year always turns out to be a war of attrition, and this year was no exception. The outer liner of Jimmie Johnson's flat tire came apart and flew up into a giant pack of cars on lap 54; a 14-car wreck ensued, effectively ending the competitive days of Kasey Kahne, Elliott Sadler, Juan Pablo Montoya, Kevin Harvick and several others. Even point leader Jeff Gordon wasn't immune to the madness, getting clipped by Tony Raines and spun in a vicious wreck on the front straightaway a handful of laps later. While Gordon walked away unhurt, he saw his streak of Coca-Cola 600 DNFs rise to five as his team couldn't repair the damage. Meanwhile, Raines, Jeff Burton and Robby Gordon were among those involved in the Gordon wreck; add in some engine failures by Dale Jarrett, Kenny Wallace and Newman ... and you'll see why the garage was a pretty popular place long before the checkered flag flew.

• While the Busch brothers played nice on the track, both of them became hindered with problems for the second straight week. For Kyle, a dead battery put him back in the pack around the race's halfway point and while trying to make up lost ground he hit the turn four wall on lap 227. That busted a brake rotor and caused the No. 5 to crash again -- hard -- just 25 laps later, forcing the Kellogg's Chevrolet into a 30th-place finish, 43 laps off the pace. As for older brother Kurt, he led a race-high 107 laps on the night but none after lap 179; as the car's handling deteriorated, so did Busch's attitude, with the Las Vegas native spouting off some choice words on a bunch of negative changes the team made to his race car. One hundred laps later, Busch had gone from contender for the win to first car one lap down, eventually putting himself out of his own misery with a vicious one-car crash on lap 298.

• Until the late-race gamble for fuel, it looked like Tony Stewart would complete a phenomenal comeback; after spinning out to cause the first major incident on lap 54, he battled all the way back to lead 64 of the race's final 100 laps. Unfortunately, the fuel tank ran dry with seven laps to go, forcing a late-race pit stop and a disappointing sixth-place finish.

"Sitting where we're at right now, it seems like everything is stacked against us," said Stewart's crew chief Greg Zipadelli after the race. "There's probably four or five (races) we could've won easily this year and things just didn't go our way."

• Vickers' fifth-place finish marked a new record run for Toyota at the Cup level. In fact, all the Camrys looked strong on Sunday, with Vickers, Jarrett, Jeremy Mayfield and Blaney all running in the Top 10 at various points during the event. Unfortunately, Vickers was the only Toyota to make it to the finish in this race, leading 76 laps in what was the team's first serious threat to win.