Time flies, but the #13 Germain Racing team maximized each moment that’s passed since departing Homestead in November. Casey Mears and his GEICO team took few days off in the off-season and instead committed themselves to being prepared for the 2013 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season. No sooner than the team arrived home from last season’s finale, they found themselves working feverishly to build new racecars, as the 2013 season will see a new bodystyle enter NASCAR.
The new #13 GEICO Ford Fusion will look more similar to the Ford Fusion found at local dealerships, bringing about excitement with fans and teams alike. A single car team with just 30 employees, Germain Racing’s hard work and diligence paid dividends. When the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series took to Charlotte Motor Speedway for a preliminary test in December, Mears and his GEICO team were one of the only organizations to arrive at the track with a fully built, steel-bodied racecar. In January, the team was expected to be challenged by back-to-back tests at Daytona and Charlotte, but the speed charts indicated otherwise. Daytona’s 2.5-mile superspeedway saw Mears and his #13 GEICO Ford Fusion in the top ten before Charlotte’s 1.5-mile quad-oval found them third when the off-season’s final test concluded.
Most notably, Germain Racing is quickly becoming a destination point for NASCAR talent. Even the Sprint Cup Series’ top teams experience employee turnover in the off-season, but Germain was immune to it. Instead, they added team members, including a shop foreman and mechanic. They also retained their pit crew and have a pit crew coach and consultant on staff. Both GEICO and Mears are signed on through the end of 2014, providing a level of stability that will allow Germain to experience continued growth. (Germain Racing)
