Is it hard for him to separate business from personal in this situation? “It is and it isn’t. I think because I’ve got such good friends over at Hendrick Motorsports, I understand more than ever that its business and you can separate that. At the end of the day, obviously Rick is trying to run the best possible business he can and do the best things he can for his company. At the same time we’re all really good friends still. I think the fact that I do have such good relationships over there makes these conversations a little bit easier in some respects. And in some respects, a little bit harder because you’re leaving some good friends. But at the same time, we race around each other every single weekend regardless of what team you’re with. When I was with Ganassi, [Chip Ganassi Racing] still some of the guys at Hendrick were some of my best friends. So I don’t think that will change by any means. But at the same time, it makes maybe some of these conversations a little bit easier to go through. Obviously it’s disappointing. It’s not exciting to be going through this again, you know. It’s been year in and year out that we’ve been making changes, or I’ve been making changes. I’m really looking forward to finishing off the rest of this season strong. I know we can do that. Everybody has a pretty positive attitude. It almost seems like now that people know kind of what’s going on, it’s has almost relaxed things even more and it almost seems like it’s going to go better (laughs) from here on out, just because the tension isn’t there wondering what’s going to happen.”
Does Mears think he was given enough of a chance in the car? “I don’t (know) a lot of the details of what’s going on behind the scenes. Obviously I think that because we have good relationships there at Hendrick, Rick, out of everybody wanted to see a multiple-year deal and see me get some consistency. That would be a better question for Rick and some of the guys with the team. But he understands my situation more than anybody and that getting some stability would be good. But decisions are made for certain reasons and like I said, it’s frustrating but at the same time I can’t control a lot of those things. So, hopefully in my future, somewhere before I’m about 45 [years old], I can get a couple of years in a row [smiles]. That would be good.”
Is he going to stick around in NASCAR or are open wheel cars in his future? “No, no, no. I want to be here. This is the best series in the world. Right now it’s the strongest, most competitive place and really, if you want to be a race car driver and prove that you can be the best, you need to be over here and that’s where I want to be.”
Last year, when Kyle Busch was let go from Hendrick, they didn’t let him come to team meetings as he rode out the rest of his year. Does Mears think that will happen to him? “I don’t know. If it was the case, I wouldn’t be surprised. It wouldn’t be disappointing. A team has got to protect what they’re doing as well and in those meetings things are shared that they may not want me to see for next season. Do I know that anything like that is going to happen? I don’t know. But if it did, it wouldn’t surprise me.”
A very tough question was thrown at him when one reporter asked about the #24 and #48 being in the same shop. Mears and the #88 of Earnhardt share the same shop. Does he feel he isn’t getting the same caliber of equipment as Jr? ”I do, really. It’s funny to say this now, but more than ever Hendrick Motorsports has got the parity that it needs. The biggest thing I’ve noticed this year is just how sensitive these cars are. Earlier in the year, the biggest mistake we made was thinking that man, you can change everything on these cars and it doesn’t do anything. It’s the same. And at times, it is. You’ll change about 10 million different things on these cars and nothing responds, but then you go out and you pull about an eighth-inch of camber and all of a sudden you’re one of the fastest cars on the track. I think finding that sweet spot in these cars has been difficult and I think the No. 88 found it early in some ways in some things that worked for Junior. And they’ve sort of just stayed in that window.”
What has the team done to help him run better? “We’ve talked and realized that [with] making some small changes and getting some direction, we’ve really started to narrow down more of what we like. So I don’t think with our performance and the way that things have gone this year, is because they’ve been giving me poor equipment. We’ve had great race cars in a lot of ways. Alan and I had trouble getting our communication down early. Now we’re getting a little bit more on the same page and we’re starting to see a little bit of progress and starting to develop some trends. Unfortunately, after last year we had gained some momentum and won a race and Darian [Grubb] and I were starting to get on the same page. Now you move into the No. 5 car and you’ve got to learn a new crew chief, new driver scenario and on top of that, learning a new car. So that just kind of threw us for a loop at the beginning of this year and obviously that some of the reason when we didn’t have the performance. But that’s also why I’ve got a lot of confidence that we can perform the rest of the season because I know it’s there. We’ve just got to wrap our arms around it and make the right decisions and move forward.”
So how does Mears feel about the rest of the year? Should he stay upbeat and hope for good results? “Yeah, I don’t see why we can’t, to be honest. It’s frustrating to go through these scenarios but beyond this right here, we’re still at the race track, do you know what I mean? We’re trying to make the best race car we possibly can. That team’s got a lot of pride. They want to run well. I want to run well. We’re just going to continue to work hard. There are no hard feelings anywhere, I mean really.”
With the announcement coming before the half way mark of the season, what level of commitment do you think you’ll get for the rest of the year? And will you stick around for the rest of the season or split early? “I think that Hendrick Motorsports is as committed as ever to making sure they’ve got a fast race car, if not, maybe more. Obviously now that we know we’ve struggled a little bit, they really want to find exactly why that has been. For myself, I want to do the same. I’m committed to finishing out the remainder of the season with Hendrick Motorsports. I haven’t even thought beyond any of that. I’m going to have discussions about next season with other teams. If something develops toward the end of the year where it makes sense for everybody, given the scenario, I don’t know exactly what the future holds. But right now my plan is to finish off the rest of the year with Hendrick Motorsports. We’ll see how that plays out as time goes on. But right now, I think that Hendrick is very committed and in seeing the No. 5 car do well and I’m the same.”
Mears has been named as a possible driver for the new fourth car of Richard Childress racing. Has he talked to them? “They are a great organization, obviously. If that was an opportunity, it would be great. So far, I’ve seen some really good opportunities and if something like that is to develop, it would be a great opportunity. But the more you dig into it, there are a lot of things that are happening for next season. There are a lot of teams that are continuing to grow and add new teams and making changes for next season. I’d like to get something tied up as soon as possible just so we can all just take a deep breath and relax and focus on the remainder of this year.”