When Casey Mears announced a five-race schedule with Beard Motorsports, beginning with April’s NASCAR Cup Series event at Talladega Superspeedway, the 2007 Coca-Cola 600 race winner was set to reach his 500th career Cup Series start in this year’s season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
However, Mother Nature severely hampered Mears’ bid to reach the milestone mark in 2026, as rain washed out qualifying for the Jack Link’s 500 at Talladega Superspeedway, which sent the Beard Motorsports team, which had no accrued owner points this season, home.
On Wednesday, Beard Motorsports and Mears announced that they have added the June 14 event at Pocono Raceway to their schedule this season, which will serve as the make-up race for the failed qualifying attempt at Talladega Superspeedway.
With that announcement, Mears’ quest for his 500th career NASCAR Cup Series start is back on track.
In addition to Pocono Raceway, Mears will slide behind the wheel of the No. 62 Beard Motorsports Chevrolet in the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on July 26, the Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona International Speedway on August 29, the YellaWood 500 at Talladega Superspeedway on October 25, and the NASCAR Cup Series Championship Race at Homestead-Miami Speedway on November 8.
The 48-year-old Mears competed in the season-opening Daytona 500 earlier this year for Garage 66, a team with which the driver made a total of five starts a season ago in the NASCAR Cup Series. Mears, who incredibly worked his way into the field through a last-lap crash in the America 250 Florida Duels at Daytona, would go on to finish the race in the 32nd position.
With 495 career NASCAR Cup Series starts, Mears has one win, 13 top-five finishes, and 51 top-10s. The driver had a career-best 14th-place finish in the NASCAR Cup Series championship standings in 2006, while driving for Chip Ganassi Racing.
Mears was a full-time NASCAR Cup Series competitor from 2003 to 2009, and again from 2011 to 2016. Prior to his five starts a season ago, Mears had just one NASCAR Cup Series start, which came in 2019, since he left the series full-time following the 2016 campaign.
After it was brought to his attention how close he was to the 500th career start milestone, Mears got the itch to return to chase after the statistic. He now sits within five starts of making it happen.
