Another Former NASCAR Star Accuses Sport Of Rigging Races

Another former NASCAR driver has accused the series of race manipulation. Not great! Not surprising, but … not ideal, either. Not for NASCAR. Not for you. Not for me. 

And, of course, not for Casey Mears. 

Mears, a full-time Cup racer from 2003-2016, returned to the track last week for a one-off race at Martinsville. It was his first time back in six years. He finished 35th. Obviously, that's not why you're all here. 

Earlier this week, Mears joined Dale Earnhardt Jr. for a little race debrief, and admitted to him that he feels like NASCAR stole not one, not two, but THREE races from him in 2005.

Three!

First Carl Edwards, now Casey Mears!

Dale Jr: You feel like there was a late yellow in that race that you were gonna win?

Casey: 100%. 

Dale: That was probably unnecessary?

Casey: 100%

Dale: And you felt like, if you had won that race, your whole career would've been different?

What a sequence. I'd encourage everyone to go and watch the full interaction on YouTube. It's at the bottom of this article. NO! Don't go yet. We've still got some things to clear up. 

So, Casey and Dale are talking about the 2005 season, where Mears says he was in line to win three races, but a late yellow from NASCAR messed everything up. 

In the longer clip, Junior talks about the rise in cautions in NASCAR coincided perfectly with new TV deals, and he's 100% right. They also mysteriously started going away right around the time stage-racing was introduced in 2017. 

Weird!

Again, NASCAR will never admit to any of it, but fans – and drivers, obviously – all saw it. Carl Edwards came forward last month and basically said that NASCAR's late caution in the 2016 championship race at Homestead drove him to an early retirement. 

"I know NASCAR was throwing those cautions to make it more exciting. That’s a fact," he told Junior. 

They did, and, to some extent, they still do today with stage racing. None of this is earth-shattering, because us fans have said it for years. Decades, even.

But to hear it come from the drivers now? Wild. 

Anyway, Mears finished fifth in that Homestead race, and would win one time over his 16-year career: the 2007 Coke 600. 

Not a bad one to have on your resume, at least.