PREVIEW: CASEY MEARS (NO. 5 KELLOGG'S/CARQUEST CHEVROLET)

MEARS AT ATLANTA: Casey Mears will make his 11th NASCAR Sprint Cup Series start at Atlanta Motor Speedway on Sunday. Mears posted his career-best finish -- 12th -- at the track on Oct. 28.

NO. 5 CHEVY AT ATLANTA: When under the direction of crew chief Alan Gustafson, the No. 5 team has a career-best 12th-place finish, which it notched in three straight Sprint Cup races at Atlanta Motor Speedway. The most recent 12th-place finish was March 19, 2006. Last fall, the No. 5 team led 77 laps before finishing 20th after an issue during a late-race pit stop.

ATLANTA STRENGTH: Car owner Rick Hendrick has 10 victories, two pole positions, 42 top-five finishes and 65 top-10s in Sprint Cup competition at Atlanta Motor Speedway. It is one of eight race tracks where Hendrick has accumulated double-digit wins.

16 RACES. AND COUNTING: You have to go back to last century to find the last time Hendrick Motorsports failed to record a top-10 finish at Atlanta. It was Nov. 21, 1999, and Hendrick was then a three-car team with drivers Jeff Gordon, Terry Labonte and Wally Dallenbach Jr. That's a streak of 16 consecutive races with a top-10 result at the Hampton, Ga., track.

TOP-10 STREAK: Hendrick Motorsports teams have posted at least one top-10 finish in 68 consecutive Sprint Cup Series races dating back to April 9, 2006. Finishing 11th, Jimmie Johnson was Hendrick's top performer that day at Texas Motor Speedway.

5 TEAM DUE AT ATLANTA: The No. 5 is the oldest number in the Hendrick Motorsports stable, dating back to the inception of All-Star Racing in 1984. In those 23 years, the No. 5 has competed at Atlanta Motor Speedway 49 times with four different drivers, but never has visited Victory Lane. The No. 5 team has been the runner-up four times, though, with Geoff Bodine (2), Ricky Rudd (1) and Terry Labonte (1). Prior to 1984, the number visited Atlanta's Victory Lane just once, and that was in 1960 with driver Bobby Johns and owner Cotton Owens.

MEMORABLE ATLANTA DAY: The Kellogg's/CARQUEST Chevrolet has yet to win at Atlanta Motor Speedway, but the team did celebrate there on Nov. 10, 1996. Labonte used a fifth-place finish to secure the Sprint Cup Series championship that day, edging teammate Jeff Gordon and his No. 24 Chevrolet team, which finished third. The title was the second for Labonte and Hendrick Motorsports. Mike Bumgarner, still a No. 5 crew member, was the tire specialist and rear-tire changer in 1996. He is the team's car chief today.

ATLANTA CHASSIS: Crew chief Alan Gustafson has chosen Hendrick Motorsports Chassis No. 468, which will make its debut in Sunday's race at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

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AUTOGRAPHS: Casey Mears will greet fans and sign autographs at the Kellogg's/CARQUEST souvenir trailer at 10:30 a.m. ET on Sunday.

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CASEY MEARS, DRIVER, NO. 5 KELLOGG'S/CARQUEST CHEVROLET (ON RACING SUPERSTITIONS.): "I used to have a lot of them. Like not to wear green to the race track. And don't hang your helmet upside down because that means you'll get upside down in your race car. I always put my left glove on before my right. I believed that peanuts were bad luck, too. One time during an off-road race that my Dad was in, a friend and I were out on the track to help if needed, and he started throwing peanut shells out onto the course. My Dad was running second, and my friend thought that the shells might give the guy winning some bad luck. When the leader drove by nothing happened at first, then a couple hundred feet away he wrecked. Our eyes got huge, and we ran out on the course and picked up every shell we could find before my Dad got to us."

MEARS (ON DEVELOPING SUPERSTITIONS AFTER THE EVENTS AT DAYTONA AND CALIFORNIA.): "Well, I just had this conversation at Daytona and said that I don't really believe in superstitions or jinxes or anything like that anymore. But after the luck, or lack of luck we've had so far this year, something needed to change. I've been wearing these super-cool black Alpine Stars racing shoes so far this season. But there has always been a blue pair just sitting in my drawer in the truck. So when practice started at Vegas, I instantly reached for the blue ones. Time for a change I guess."

ALAN GUSTAFSON, CREW CHIEF, NO. 5 KELLOGG'S/CARQUEST CHEVROLET (ON IF HE IS SUPERSTITIOUS.): "No. I eat peanuts at the race track. I wear green. None of that stuff gets to me at all. When I was a kid and played soccer, my number was 13. I don't believe in any of that stuff."

GUSTAFSON (ON WHY ATLANTA HAS BEEN SUCH A TOUGH TRACK FOR THIS RACE TEAM.): "Last fall at Atlanta we led 77 laps, but had an issue on pit road that pretty much cost us the race. So it's not that we don't run well there, we just haven't been able to post the finishes that go with that. We've had fast cars there, and there are about two or three races there I could say we probably should have won. But it all comes down to doing everything right. And we just haven't been able to do that yet at Atlanta."

GUSTAFSON (ON KEEPING HIS TEAM MOTIVATED AFTER TWO TOUGH RACES.): "I just have to keep the team positive and keep all of my own emotions in check. We just go into every week continuously doing our jobs the best that we can. It's tough, though. Nothing about having a rough start to the season is easy."