Casey Mears to sub for Jeff Burton in Texas Nationwide Series race
FORT WORTH, Texas – Teammate Casey Mears is replacing Richard Childress Racing's Jeff Burton as driver of the No. 29 Chevrolet in this weekend’s NASCAR Nationwide Series event at Texas Motor Speedway.
The move comes after Burton smacked the wall during the day’s lone Sprint Cup Series practice session.
Burton, who has 12 starts in the RCR entry this season, was scheduled to participate in Saturday's O’Reilly Challenge as well as Sunday’s Dickies 500.
While he was not injured, the Cup car was damaged badly enough that the team was forced to pull out a backup for qualifying.
“It’s kind of a crappy way to start [the weekend] off,” Burton said. “We were really fast in race trim and really happy with the car.
“Something happened with the power steering, that’s what we think happened, and I just wasn’t strong enough to turn it. It just went straight. It’s like I blew a right front tire, but it didn’t. I just couldn’t get it turned and it missed the soft wall. It hit the back, then smacked the front and it dazed me.
“I’m OK. My head hurts, but I actually feel a lot better now than I did two hours ago.”
The decision, which was made by Childress, won’t affect Burton’s status for Sunday’s Cup race.
“What we’re trying to do is trying to build to win a championship in 2010 and using last four races to build on that,” Burton said. “So we don’t want to do some thing that would jeopardize me. So he made the call and he did it wholly for my well-being. I don’t like it, but I appreciate the hell out of it. He just wants to make sure that I don’t do something stupid, because I probably would. So I’m good with all of that.”
It will be the first Nationwide Series start for Mears since the 2007 season.
