Casey Mears

After joining Germain Racing in 2010 to help build that single-car organization, Mears and the team parted ways at the end of 2016. Mears had a less-than-stellar season and it led to younger driver, Ty Dillon, coming in and replacing him in the No. 13 Chevrolet. Mears will now try to sell his skills on the free agent market of NASCAR. Ideally, he'd like to keep racing in the Monster Energy Cup Series. At just 38-years-old Mears still has some driving left in him, and he's not ready to step down or step out yet at this point. However, this is where his situation mirrors that of Greg Biffle to a certain degree. The available seats and quality rides that are left are growing pretty thin. Watch closely to see where Mears lands in the coming season, but chances are it won't be an opportunity to have any fantasy racing impact.

This 13-season veteran signed a three-year contract extension at the end of last season to stay with Germain Racing in the No. 13 Chevrolet. GEICO signed on for the same deal so Mears is set in the Sprint Cup Series for the foreseeable future. 2015 was a bit of a down campaign for Mears as his top-10 totals dropped from three-to-one over the previous year. What was missing was the team's excellent performance on super speedways, which they greatly enjoyed in 2014. Most weeks it was a battle to challenge the top-25 in the finishing order each race. There were plenty of ups-and-downs, but consistency was the main problem. With only four DNF's it wasn't the equipment plaguing Mears, but more a battle to be competitive each week. We should be in for more of the same in 2016.

The biggest obstacle to this veteran’s success isn’t the other drivers or even the tracks, but the funding and critical money needed to be competitive. Germain Racing has struggled to pay the bills, but large corporate sponsor GEICO has stood by them from nearly the beginning. Mears spent a large portion of last season start-and-parking the No. 13 Toyota and that is a killer from a fantasy racing standpoint. When this team takes to the track with the goal to compete they can be pretty good. Mears collected four straight Top-20 finishes between June and July last year before the funding issues set in. If Germain Racing can keep the money flowing there’s little doubt that Mears can climb the rankings, but the cloud of funding problems hangs over this team for the time being.

Mears moves to the top Ganassi Racing team in 2006, taking the driver seat for the departed Jamie McMurray in the #42 team. Mears is talented, and should improve but don't expect a Chase appearance just yet.