When Casey Mears returned to the NASCAR Cup Series last spring, one of his goals involved a major milestone: make his 500th career start.
Mears reached No. 500 with the green flag in Sunday’s season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway, piloting Beard Motorsports’ No. 62 Chevrolet. He was short by 12 starts after his full-time Cup career concluded after the 2016 campaign, but a pair of part-time efforts allowed him to become the 50th driver in history to check that box.
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Mears’ first start in NASCAR came 25 years ago at Homestead-Miami in what’s now the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series, driving the Jeff Welliver-owned No. 66 to a 28th-place finish. He said that he’s not sure if Sunday’s race will bring full-circle closure to his career, leaving the door open for Cup Series start No. 501 or opportunities in other series.
“I don’t know what next year looks like yet,” Mears said. “Right now, I just really wanted to reach this goal, but I never stopped the love of driving race cars. You know, that never went away for me. It’s just, the opportunities did. So if there’s an opportunity to do something, I wouldn’t mind running in the Truck Series or in the O’Reilly Series a little bit. I mean, I’ve had a really fun time coming back and being in a race car, so I would be open to doing something else, too.”
— NASCAR.com —