NASCAR CUP SERIES: AMERICA 250 FLORIDA DUEL 1 AT DAYTONA

February 12, 2026

Casey Mears

Press Conference

An Interview with:

Q. Casey, take us through the last moments.

CASEY MEARS: Probably a little bit of power of prayer. There's a lot of that going on in the car (smiling). Just couldn't thank everybody enough for getting us here to begin with.

Yeah, I had an issue on pit road. I got a runner around the outside. I figured I'd stay on the gas no matter what happened. When I saw him spinning and I missed the first guy, I thought okay, good. Then I hit -- was it the 9 I hit square? Anyway, I hit somebody square. And I knew when I hit him flat it didn't tear up the car too much and I was going to be able to get back. But I didn't know who was in front of me still, whether or not we made it. All the guys started going nuts on the radio.

I want to say hi to Trish and the kids at home. I can't believe we're here based on our night and the way that it went. I want to thank KARR Security Systems, S.I. Yachts, the Gracie Foundation, most of all Bob Germain. This guy stepped up and put me here.

Q. 10 people on this car. How do you get here and how do you move forward to Sunday?

CASEY MEARS: That's a really good question. I don't know exactly what the rules are, how they sit. I don't know what's repairable on this and what isn't. I think we do have another car that we plan to take to Atlanta in case we didn't make the show, we'd have something ready to go for Atlanta.

Maybe we can get that ready. I don't even know what the rules are. I just know we made it. The car is damaged. We have to figure it out. I'm just happy to be here.