Mears starts slow after team switch

He's struggling in his first year with Hendrick Motorsports.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) -- Jeff Gordon leads the Nextel Cup standings, Jimmie Johnson won two of the first four races and Kyle Busch picked up his first victory last Sunday at Bristol.
Casey Mears? Well, he's not doing quite as well.
Hendrick Motorsports' newest member has gotten off to a slow start in his first season in the No. 25 Chevrolet, leading many to wonder whether Mears belongs with one of NASCAR's super teams.
"The tough thing for Casey is the other three Hendrick teams, the chemistry is there, we are running well and we're all up in the points," said Gordon, the four-time series champion. "So it's easy to point fingers and ask 'How come you aren't running so good?'
"But the reality is, we all know what it takes to pull the finishes off and a lot of it has to do with chemistry that takes time to build."
Still adjusting
Mears has had little time to settle into his new ride.
Although he announced last summer that he was leaving Chip Ganassi Racing to replace Brian Vickers at Hendrick, Mears couldn't actually test drive his new car until the season was over.
That gave him less than two months to build a rapport with his new team.
When things were slow to click with Lance McGrew at the helm, Darian Grubb was shuffled over to Mears' team for his first full-time crew chief job -- just four days before teams reported to Daytona.
Grubb had a short but successful stint as a crew chief last season, leading Johnson to two wins during Chad Knaus' four-race suspension. When Knaus was reinstated, Grubb returned to his role as Johnson's lead engineer.
With no real desire to become a crew chief, Grubb carefully considered Hendrick's request to lead Mears' team.
A veteran crew chief has very little free time, let alone a new one who inherits a team the same week the season begins.
Mears opened the season with four finishes 20th or lower and dropped all the way to 34th in the standings.
Raced well at Bristol
With the team teetering too close to the pivotal top-35 cutoff point, Mears and Grubb headed to Bristol Motor Speedway last week in need of a solid finish.
Despite a history of struggles at the short track, Mears had a career-best top 10 finish, lifting the team to 26th in the standings heading into Martinsville Speedway this weekend.
Although one bad race could put him right back into the hole, Mears is confident he and Grubb are finally clicking.
"Looking at where the team was when we first got a hold of it, and Darian's seen some areas where we've really improved," Mears said.
"I think we've seen all the room we've had for improvement, and I think we should be pretty good pretty soon."
Mears, who had limited stock-car experience when he got his Cup ride in 2003, has had to adjust to a Chevrolet after four years of driving a Dodge. And he's had to do it with a Hendrick team that has always lagged behind. Although Hendrick gives his teams equal resources, the No. 25 always has struggled.
"I realized from talking with Brian Vickers and the team what we were getting into," Mears said. "We're uncovering a lot of little things that we need to improve on ... and it definitely needs a lot of work in a lot of little areas. We're getting there, slowly but surely knocking down those walls and getting where we need to be."
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