Mears, Earnhardt Jr. put PIR incident behind them

By Joe Menzer, NASCAR.COM

Drivers texted each other, no ill feelings heading to 'Dega

Let's repeat that for those in Junior Nation who might still be hanging onto some conspiracy belief that there is more to it: last Saturday's incident between their beloved driver, Dale Earnhardt Jr., and Casey Mears was no big deal.

So say the two drivers who were involved in it and received six-race probation sentences for it from NASCAR. The incident began as the two were fighting for the 20th position with 11 laps remaining in Saturday's Fresh Fit 500 at Phoenix International Raceway.

Mears ended up inadvertently tapping Earnhardt and sending him spinning into the wall. Earnhardt retaliated after completion of the race by spinning Mears during the cool-down lap, after which Mears' No. 07 car ran down Earnhardt's No. 88 Chevrolet as they came down pit road and rapped him a couple times.

"Me and Mears are cool," Earnhardt said Friday at Talladega Superspeedway. "We've been buddies. What happens on the track stays on the track. It's good to be on probation every once in a while, I guess."

The two were teammates at Hendrick Motorsports last season. Mears now drives for Richard Childress Racing.

"We ended up texting back and forth this week; we kept missing each other's phone call. It's not that big a deal," Mears said.

Then, thinking of Earnhardt's vast fan base as NASCAR's long-running most popular driver, Mears amended that comment before describing what happened in his eyes.

"Typically, it's not that big a deal, but with him it always is," Mears said. "We were running him down pretty quick and I got inside of him. I was having a problem the whole time with my rear brakes. He ended up being the Lucky Dog [the first car one lap down] by the time I got to him. I didn't think about it because we were running him down so fast, and then he started racing me really hard for the Lucky Dog.

"And he was running me down, pinching me down real tight. I was already loose in -- and the way these cars are now, if you run right on the right side of somebody, it loosens them up even more. So it was just a combination; I got loose and ended up getting into him. But it wasn't without a little bit of help on his part. I think he was pretty frustrated the way they were running the whole race and that probably just topped it off.

"So after the checkered flag the whole line was held up, and I didn't really see why and had forgotten about it by then. I was coming around the outside and I saw him at the last minute and I swerved, knowing what was coming. I just got [ticked] off because I got spun out, so I went back and let him know that I was [ticked] off.''

Earnhardt was, too. But more than anything else about the way his day ended after he earlier had led 63 laps.

"Me and Casey are real good friends, so we definitely wouldn't go the week without having a discussion about it," Earnhardt added. "He's having a better year this year, but is still not satisfied and I'm definitely in the same position he is. We're just trying to run better.

"It's just frustrating. I knew that he had made a mistake because Casey doesn't run over people, but I just lost my cool. It happens. I just hated leading the race and running good and then getting wrecked running 20th. That's all that was."

Mears said that he accepts the punishment and that he believes a six-race probation is fair.

"We didn't put anybody in harms way with what we were doing," Mears said. "I mean, we got down to pit road when I bumped him. But I obviously knew we were on pit road. I wasn't going to shove him into somebody on pit road. I just wanted to bump him a little and know I was upset. And where he did it on the race track, it was after the race, there was nobody out there and nobody was going to get hurt. I think we both proved our point and no harm, no foul, we'll go on to next week.''

Next week, of course, is here now. Neither driver expects any ill will to carry over to this Sunday's Aaron's 499 at Talladega.

"We were teammates last year and we're fine," Mears said. "I know him pretty well. I am sure he was pretty frustrated with the fact that he ended up getting wrecked, which is understandable. Mine was clearly an accident, his was clearly deliberate, so I was clearly [ticked] off about it and did something back.

"But at the end of the day, it's from weekend to weekend and that was last weekend. He's grown up enough to know that, I'm grown up enough to know that. We've both got bigger fish to fry right now. We've got to work on getting points; I think he does, too. If we start worrying about each other, it's not going to make any sense.

"At the same time, I think NASCAR takes the precaution [of handing out the probations] because you don't know [what's happening] behind the scenes. I might not have been able to get a hold of Junior, and there's no telling what we'd be thinking coming into here. On their side, they do something that makes them feel good about it, and makes us think about it a little more.''