Mears Wins Busch Race Pole

Casey Mears, latest member of the Mears Gang from Bakersfield, will start on the pole for today’s Target House 300, a Busch series race, after posting a speed of 182.890 mph in a Dodge during qualifying Friday at California Speedway.

The 26-year-old son of off-road racing champion Roger and nephew of four-time Indianapolis 500 winner Rick Mears came back later in the day to qualify sixth for Sunday’s Pop Secret 500, a Nextel Cup race. He lapped the two-mile D-shaped track at 185.802 mph in another Dodge.

Rookie Brian Vickers, 20, who was the youngest national series winner in NASCAR history when he won the Busch series last year, won his second Nextel Cup pole this year at 187.417 mph in a Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet. It upstaged his two more illustrious teammates, four-time Nextel Cup champion Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson, who are the top two drivers in this year’s standings.

Gordon, a three-time winner on the Fontana track, qualified eighth and Johnson 16th.

“The car was awesome,� said Vickers. “It stuck and the engine pulled down the straightaways and the body kept us stuck in the corners. What else can you say?�

Vickers credited his hot lap to the cooperative attitude of his teammates and the three crews.

“We try to communicate as much as possible and it works even better because not only are we teammates but we get along,� the Thomasville, N.C. native said. “We’re friends, the drivers, crew chiefs and everybody involved. That makes a difference.�

Jeremy Mayfield, winner of the California race in 2000, put his Dodge alongside Vickers on the front row, averaging 186.364.

Bill Elliott, who has driven in only five races this year after going into semi-retirement as a tutor for rookie Kasey Kahne, a member of Ray Evernham’s Dodge team, was a surprising third. The 49-year-old who was called “Million Dollar Bill� after he won the Daytona 500, Winston 500 and Southern 500 in 1985, was 0.012 of a second slower than Mayfield with a 186.306-mph lap.

Kahne will start right in back of Elliott, on the inside of the third row, with a 185.816 lap.

Rusty Wallace, who announced this week that he would retire after the 2005 season, did not fare so well. Winner of the 2001 California 500, he will start his Dodge from the 13th row.

Shane Hmeil, 29th, and J.J. Yeley, 32nd, qualified for their first Cup races. It was Hmeil’s second try, having missed at the Daytona in July 2003. It was the first attempt by Yeley, who won the U.S. Auto Club’s triple crown of midget, sprint cars and Silver Crown cars last year.

Veteran road racer Boris Said, making his second start in an oval track race, squeezed in the 36th spot after lapping at 182.778 in the Centrix Chevrolet.

“I feel like I just had a sack of cement fall off my shoulders,� said the Carlsbad driver after completing his time trial.

Mears, who drove five years in open-wheel cars before switching to stock cars two years ago, was elated over his performance.

“It’s great to do good here in California,� said Mears. “I’ve always struggled in California. In the spring, we finally got our act together when we finished seventh.�

In eight races before this year, Mears finished 15th, eighth, 13th and fourth in Indy Lights from 1997 to 2000, fourth and eighth in CART champ cars in 2000 and 2001, 29th in Busch race in 2002 and 34th in a Cup race last year.

Mears will drive the Target House Dodge in the Cup race.

Martin Truex Jr., the Busch series leader who drives a Chevrolet for Dale Earnhardt Jr., will start alongside Mears in the 150-lap Target House race.

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NASCAR Busch Target House 300

* When: Today (Channel 4, noon).

* Where: California Speedway.

* Race distance: 300 miles, 150 laps.

NASCAR Nextel Cup Pop Secret 500

* When: Sunday (Channel 4, 4 p.m.).

* Where: California Speedway (D-shaped oval, 2 miles, 14 degrees banking in turns), Fontana.

* Race distance: 500 miles, 250 laps.