Mears staves off Edwards, empty tank to take Busch race

JOLIET, Ill. -- Casey Mears always had the family pedigree. And as of next year, he'll have a new ride at the elite Hendrick Motorsports team.

Now he finally has a NASCAR trophy.

"It's funny," Mears said. "I'm very, very excited, but almost more relieved."

Mears squirted away on a restart with 28 laps to go, then cruised to victory in Saturday's NASCAR Busch Series race at Chicagoland Speedway.

Mears crossed the line 0.525 seconds ahead of Carl Edwards for his first career victory in a top-level NASCAR series.

"He's a winner in the NASCAR series, and he can do it again tomorrow," crew chief Brad Parrott said.

Casey Mears has just enough gas in the tank to win his first Busch event. (Getty Images)

Mears, the nephew of four-time Indianapolis 500 champion Rick Mears, is leaving Chip Ganassi Racing at the end of the year to drive for Hendrick. Ganassi considered taking Mears out of the Busch car after announcing he was leaving, but Parrott lobbied the team owner to let Mears keep driving.

"I told Chip that he's our driver," Parrott said.

Edwards tried to chase down Mears in the closing laps, forcing Mears -- who was running low on gas and ran dry trying to drive to Victory Lane -- to dive aggressively to the apron on the final lap to get around two lapped cars.

Mears lost the Busch Series race in Charlotte in May when his car ran low on gas and began to sputter, allowing Edwards to drive to victory.

"Congratulations to Casey," Edwards said. "He's just one of the nicest guys in the world."

Jeff Burton finished third as Nextel Cup regulars swept the top 10.

Johnny Sauter finished 17th, making him the top-finishing driver who isn't a regular in the Cup series.