CM:
Oh, always. I always look to him for support. He drives my motorhome to all the races and has done that now for the last few years. When things are going good, he's there to pat you on the back and if things are bad, he's there to help you out as well. It's nice to have dad on the road and, obviously, he has a lot of knowledge in racing so, from top to bottom, he's helped me a lot.
Q:
Is starting up front really important here in California?
CM:
No. In these races these days, they're long enough and there is enough strategy involved that starting position isn't critical. Obviously, you want to qualify well to get a good pit-stall, and it makes it easier on you to start in the top ten, which we still might have an opportunity to do, but at this point we're kind of guessing a little bit going into qualifying because we were off pretty good.
Q:
Should NASCAR have thrown the caution earlier on the last lap at Daytona?
CM:
I don't think anybody would have done anything different if they would have thrown the caution. You've got a bunch of hungry guys out there. There are 43 of us who want to win that race. When you're sitting there with the chequered flag in sight - even if the caution comes out, you're going to be hesitant to check up just in case. If they did throw the caution early, you don't know where those timing lines are. You can't physically see them. So with the chequered flag that close, I don't think anybody would have checked up or done anything different anyway.
![Casey Mears - National Guard Chevrolet [pic credit: GM media]](http://pix.crash.net/thumbs/289104.jpg)
