 Mears has made great strides |
Casey Mears and Jamie McMurray showed their improvement with the quickest practice times ahead of Sunday's Daytona 500 in Wednesday's practice. They are about to start their second Nascar season for the Chip Ganassi team and have learned from their first year.
Mears said: "Our cars are working well together. If we can make them a little better we'll be in good shape."
Greg Biffle and Elliott Sadler start the race from the front, with the rest of the order to be decided on Thursday.
Mears and McMurray were the only drivers to top 191 mph on Wednesday.
They were the only rookies to qualify for all 36 Winston Cup races last year, but neither won.
The 25-year-old Mears failed to score a single top-10 finish and ended up 35th in the series standings. He also failed to complete 10 races.
The 27-year-old McMurray won the Rookie of the Year title last year, but he did it without a single trip to Victory Lane.
He had one pole - in the season finale - five top fives, 13 top 10s and wound up 13th in the standings.
MMIX
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