PREVIEW: CASEY MEARS (NO. 5 POP-TARTS/CARQUEST CHEVROLET)

MEARS AT VEGAS: Casey Mears will make his sixth NASCAR Sprint Cup Series start at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Sunday. In his five previous starts at the track, he has earned three top-10 finishes, most recently finishing ninth in 2006.

POP-TARTS MILESTONE: This weekend, Pop-Tarts, Kellogg's most popular morning food product, will adorn the hood of the No. 5 Chevrolet for the first time. The Pop-Tarts brand, created in the early 1960s, is more than 40 years old, putting the product in the same age bracket as just six members of the No. 5 team, which averages a very young 34 years old.

DUNES DAY: On Thursday, Mears is taking a group of friends, including teammate Jimmie Johnson, on a day-long trip of off-roading in the Dumont Dunes, which are located about 100 miles southwest of Las Vegas near Baker, Calif. Mears recently purchased a new off-road sand car, similar to a dune buggy, that he spent much of the off-season driving around the sand dunes. (Photos of this trip or previous outings available upon request.)

NO. 5 AT VEGAS: The No. 5 team has posted two top-five finishes and three straight top-10s at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. The No. 5 Chevrolet's best finish was in March 2005 when it took second behind the No. 48 of teammate Jimmie Johnson.

JUST A BABY: Mears started attending motor sports events at a young age. When he was 2 weeks old, he attended a sprint car race at Ascot Park, a dirt race track near Los Angeles. At 6 weeks old, he attended his first off-road racing event -- the once-famous Mint 400 in Las Vegas. Mears' father, off-road racing legend Roger Mears, was competing in that race, which promised a $100,000 purse. (A photo of Mears and his father at the race is available upon request.)

RALLY CAPS: Lead mechanic Mike Senyitko was tired of the No. 5 crew's somber attitude Sunday evening. Mears' fiery crash on Lap 20 at California Speedway had been disappointing for the No. 5 Chevy team, which dropped to 42nd in the Sprint Cup driver standings. As the team boarded the plane for Concord, N.C., Senyitko shouted, "Rally caps!" That one little baseball axiom changed the mood, as each team member with a hat flipped it inside out and upside down. The No. 5 crew clapped and cheered prior to takeoff, leaving California behind and setting their sights on Las Vegas.

HAULER PARADE: No. 5 transporter drivers Dean Mozingo and Jimmy Parrott will participate in a "Hauler Parade" down the Las Vegas Strip at 2:30 p.m. PT on Thursday. Mozingo has been at Hendrick Motorsports for seven years, while Parrott came on board last year.

LEADING LAS VEGAS: Rick Hendrick's teams have fared well recently at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Jimmie Johnson, driver of the No. 48 Chevrolet, has won the last three races at the track, while the other three Hendrick teams have combined for an additional five top-five finishes and six top-10s during those events.

VEGAS CHASSIS: Crew chief Alan Gustafson has chosen Hendrick Motorsports Chassis No. 418 for Sunday's race. This particular chassis last was used at Dover (Del.) International Speedway on Sept. 23, 2007, when the No. 5 team finished fifth.

TESTING PLANNED: After Sunday's race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, the No. 5 Chevrolet team will travel to Phoenix International Raceway for the third of five open Sprint Cup Series test sessions. A separate fleet of Hendrick Motorsports transporters will await the team in Phoenix with the necessary testing equipment.

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AUTOGRAPHS: Casey Mears will greet fans and sign autographs at the Kellogg's/CARQUEST souvenir trailer at 9:45 a.m. PT on Sunday.

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CASEY MEARS, DRIVER, NO. 5 POP-TARTS/CARQUEST CHEVROLET (ON HEADING TO THE SAND DUNES.): "Other than racing, this is it. The sand dunes are such a huge part of my life, and it's just so much fun that I want everyone to experience it. I just know that there's no way anyone could go out there and not have fun. I want everyone to catch the bug like I have."

MEARS (ON HIS FIRST TRIP TO THE DUMONT DUNES.): "My first trip to the dunes, I was a baby. My Mom was holding me in the passenger seat of a dune buggy. My Dad hit a bump and knocked me out of my Mom's arms. I fell on the floorboard and clear down to the nose of the car. They hit the brakes, and when Mom finally got to me I was just waking up. So that was my first experience with the dunes. And it didn't have a negative effect because I still love going."

MEARS (ON BUYING THE NEW SAND CAR.): "When I used to go out, I would play around on quads. I used to race quads as a kid, so that was just what we did when we went out there. We didn't think of anything else. Plus, back then, sand buggies were just OK. They didn't have the technology that they do now. Today, they're more like off-road cars. I saw one at California Speedway a few years ago and just knew that I had to have one. I contacted Tatum Motorsports and had them custom build one for me about a year ago. It has a lot of little things that I added to it. It has an air compressor on it in case we get a flat out there; a light rack on top; a second battery. It's pretty cool. I've had a blast in it."

MEARS (ON GROWING UP THE SON OF A FAMOUS OFF-ROAD RACER.): "My Dad was always just my Dad. I know now that other people look at him differently, but to me he was just my Dad. He was normal. I thought every kid's dad was like that. We went to the races all the time, which I loved. Looking back, my childhood was really cool. But at the time, it was just normal life. Again, I thought everyone went to the races. His success has really shaped my career choices, too. I'm sure that if he or my grandfather, Bill, didn't race, the chances of me being a race car driver would have greatly decreased. But he raised me to be super competitive and to enjoy racing. Now I'm grown up, and it's still just what I do. It's normal life."

ALAN GUSTAFSON, CREW CHIEF, NO. 5 POP-TARTS/CARQUEST CHEVROLET (ON THE TEAM'S RENEWED ENTHUSIASM.): "The rally caps on Sunday night were a great way to break the tension that you could feel throughout the team. We are in a tough situation, so it's easy to get mad and focus on the negative and what could have been. Pumping the team up like that and getting out the rally caps reminded us of what we can and cannot control. So we forget about California and turn our focus to Las Vegas."

GUSTAFSON (ON HENDRICK MOTORSPORTS' STRENGTH AT LAS VEGAS MOTOR SPEEDWAY.): "The team has gotten stronger in general, not just at Las Vegas. Hendrick Motorsports has consistently improved over the past few years, and I think our performance at tracks like Las Vegas, with Jimmie (Johnson) winning the last three races there, is just what puts our strengths, as a team, on display. It's not just this track or that track. It's this team in general."

MIKE SENYITKO, LEAD MECHANIC, NO. 5 POP-TARTS/CARQUEST CHEVROLET (ON HIS RALLY CRY.): "Everyone knows what this team has been through in the past two races. Daytona went well until the very end. Then at Fontana, well, that ended pretty badly, too. So, I'm sitting on the airplane and I look over at Sunshine (lead engineer Chris Heroy). He had his hat on backwards, and I just thought, 'Rally caps!' He and I both flipped our hats inside out and turned up the bill and just started running through the plane, shouting it out. I really wanted to do it for the guys. I'm one of the older ones on the team, and I know how easy it is to dwell on the negative. I either want these guys to be celebrating or getting over it."