BRISTOL, Tenn. (AP) – Casey Mears has a new home for the 2009 season.

As expected, Mears was introduced Saturday as the fourth driver for Richard Childress Racing, joining Jeff Burton, Kevin Harvick and Clint Bowyer in RCR’s Chevrolet stable.

“I’ve watched Casey’s career from the time he first came in and he’s always impressed me,” Childress said at Bristol Motor Speedway.

Recalling watching a race at Michigan with Mears in contention, Childress said, “I think I was pulling for you about as hard as I was for our cars.”

Mears, who is leaving Hendrick Motorsports at the end of this season, will drive the No. 07 car with Jack Daniels as its primary sponsor, Childress said. Clint Bowyer, who is driving the 07 and has it close to making it into the top 12, and thus the 10-race Chase for the championship, will move to the new No. 33 with sponsorship from Cheerios and Hamburger Helper.

The points earned by Bowyer will stay with the 07, Childress said, but he added that he is not ready to make any announcement about whether Bowyer will have a cushion in the No. 33.

Teams that carry over points from the previous year can use them for the first five races of the following season, at least to avoid having to race their way into each event.

Teams without points have to qualify in the top 35 or risk not making the race.

“We’ve got some things working on that,” Childress said without elaborating.

Bowyer joked about the possibility of starting next years with no points.

“It beats beating dents in a body shop,” he said.

For the next three weeks, however, Childress said the team will focus on the last three races that set the field for the Chase. Burton (fifth) and Harvick (eighth) started the Sharpie 500 on Saturday night inside the top 12 and Bowyer was tied for 13th, 26 points off the pace.

Olympic fever

Carl Edwards has the best dismount in NASCAR by a wide margin, routinely doing a back flip off the window deck of his car when his team wins a race.

Naturally, that makes him a fan of the Olympic athletes in Beijing.

“We were watching badminton players and that’s unbelievable,” he said. “Every sport that’s being competed at the Olympics is cool to watch because they’re just the best in the world at it.”

The track and field stuff is amazing. I got to watch the 100 and 200 and some hurdles.”

Watching, he said, could get his team playing when they have down time.

“Tom, my motor home driver, says he’s gonna put up a court,” Edwards said, speaking of badminton. “He’s really excited about it because we played in school, but you play for a week or something and that’s all the badminton we ever played.”

Pit stops

Ryan Newman’s track qualifying record wasn’t approached. Edwards won the pole at 121.860 mph, almost 7 seconds shy of Newman’s record of 128.709 in March 2003. . … Kurt Busch has earned five of his 17 career Sprint Cup victories at Bristol.

Image problem

Jeff Gordon is one of the drivers most loudly cheered – and lustily jeered – by fans during driver introductions every week, and said he has no issue with that.

“To me, what makes this sport what it is is the fans’ avidness, whether it’s for or against,” the four-time champion said. “It’s that they’re so interested in what’s going on that they know all they know about the teams, the drivers, the races and they form an opinion. That’s the key, getting people involved with their opinions whether we like them or not.”

Gordon’s popularity, and lack thereof, grew exponentially as his success increased earlier in his career, and has waned only slightly during his ongoing 28-race winless streak.

That streak, he said, has taken on a life of its own because of his history.

“You know, it’s just part of the expectations that are on this team,” he said. “We’ve been at a very high end of competition and in the limelight a lot of the years. That’s a good thing. To win four championships and 81 wins, all those things those are fantastic.”

The success of Hendrick Motorsports overall, which includes back-to-back championships by Gordon’s teammate, Jimmie Johnson, “only creates more expectations,” Gordon said. “When the expectations are high and you don’t live up to them, it’s going to create a story.”