Mears Sneaks Through Overtime Crash to Advance as LaJoie’s Daytona 500 Hopes Dashed

By David Morgan, Associate Editor

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – The odds were stacked against Casey Mears heading into the first of two Duel races at Daytona to finalize the field for the 68^th running of the Daytona 500, but sometimes the longshot gets it done.

After bringing out the first caution of the 60-lap race, Mears was seemingly well out of the running to transfer on to Sunday as one of two open cars, running behind the lead pack on the final lap in overtime, but as it tends to happen on superspeedways these days, anything can and will transpire when it all comes down to it.

With Corey LaJoie in the transfer position and just needing to finish the race in one piece to be able to put a fourth RFK Racing Ford in the big show, all hell broke loose on the backstretch and LaJoie found himself spun off the bumper of Daniel Suarez sending him into the outside wall.

Like a scene out of Days of Thunder, Mears kept his foot planted firmly on the floor as he drove through the smoke and the sparks, avoiding Lajoie’s car and others as he vaulted up into the transfer spot as the caution flag flew to bring the race to an early end.

Casey Mears! What an effort! pic.twitter.com/MqwdrH3cjs

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When you find out you are INNNNNNNNNNNNN. THE Great American Race!#NASCAR #Daytona500 pic.twitter.com/oLetDqQ5P0

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“When we were sitting in the grass, that wasn’t pretty. I can’t believe it,” said Mears. “After all that, being sitting in position to go race the Daytona 500 on Sunday, pretty much the whole race I was thinking that was out of our grasp. There’s a lot of prayers said, for sure, just for opportunity. It opened up, we took advantage of it.

“Just super happy to be here… This is just one of those places where there’s enough random things that happen and stuff that happens that’s out of your control. Sometimes you’re on the right side of it and sometimes you’re not. Fortunately, today we were on the right side.”

Mears found himself getting choked up in his press conference after making into into the race, giving credit to team owner Carl Long for giving him the opportunity to be in the position he is today as he continues on his quest for 500 career Cup Series starts. Sunday will mark start No. 495 in that journey.

“It was a big range of emotion, but the one thing that’s interesting about this time around, this is all a bonus round for me. My career pretty much had an end back in 2017, 2018. To come back and just have the opportunity to do this again is a big deal. I’m kind of soaking it in and enjoying every moment,” said Mears.

“Now to be on this side of it, deliver for Carl Long, all those guys. I got to tell you something about Carl Long. A lot of people in this room know, but that guy absolutely works harder than anybody in the garage. He is smart about how he does what he does. We knew we were going to come here and struggle and have a hard time.

“I appreciate him…That got me for a minute. I wanted you guys to know he’s the real guy behind all that.”

Quintessential Daytona

While the Mears Gang was ecstatic to make it in, it was the agony of defeat for LaJoie and RFK Racing, which looked to be a lock for a spot in the 500 before everything went haywire with half a lap to go.

Instead of moving on to Sunday with one of the best chances he has had in his career in the 500, LaJoie’s run through Speedweeks ended on Thursday night with his car being pulled back to the garage on a wrecker.

“I’m just doing all you can do. I didn’t have great momentum off turn two there. I knew the line was gonna come to me, and it came to me right at the same time I picked up the 6 [car] and he hooked me. So… worst case scenario,” said LaJoie.

“We had it all there in front of us, and something out of our control takes it away, but that’s life, man. Keep on digging, keep your chin down, and keep taking one step at a time.”

RFK owner Brad Keselowski echoed his disappointment with how things transpired at the end, with his cars going from being in control to waded up in the blink of an eye.

“At the end, I’m not sure what happened. Looks like somebody got in the back of Corey, which is really disappointing,” said Keselowski.

“We were in a spot to get him in the race. To go from having four cars in the race to three of them torn up and only one of them in the top-five is quintessential Daytona.”