Mears has.
"I threw out that scenario to them," Mears said, referring to a recent conversation with Hendrick Motorsports officials. "They all went, 'Let's not think about that.'"
Mears can't help but think about it.
A few weeks ago at Dover, he got the order from team owner Rick Hendrick via crew chief Darian Grubb to let teammate Kyle Busch pass for fifth place and the five extra points that would go to him in the championship standings.
Mears wasn't happy about what in motorsports commonly is referred to as "team orders." Not that he minds helping out a teammate, but when it comes to giving up a top-5, it seemed a bit much to ask.
So he broached the subject with management.
"Team-wise, I wanted to help," Mears said. "We talked a lot about it. We're all kind of on the same page. Whatever I can do to help those guys out, but at the same time we're in a tight battle for the 13th spot."
Mears is 122 points behind Dale Earnhardt Jr. for 13th, as high as anybody outside the Chase can move.
"The general feeling is that I'm not going to do anything to hurt those guys," Mears said. "In the meantime, I'm going to run my race and make the best decision that I can at the time."
Team orders are more common in other forms of motorsports, particularly Formula One.
At the 2002 Austrian Grand Prix, Ferrari ordered Rubens Barrichello to give up the lead to teammate Michael Schumacher on the last lap so its No. 1 driver would collect the most championship points.
During the awards ceremony, because of a hostile reaction from fans, Schumacher stood on the second-place spot and gave the top spot to Barrichello. Barrichello, Schumacher and Ferrari later were fined $1 million for failing to comply with podium ceremony. After another incident at the United States Grand Prix, the FIA made a rule against team orders artificially affecting race results.
AP Photo/Dave Martin
Hendrick teammates Jeff Gordon (24) and Jimmie Johnson (48) may have to lean on each other as the Chase turns for the homestretch.
Team orders didn't really seep into NASCAR's premier series until the playoff system was implemented in 2004.
With only 12 teams -- up two from the first three years -- vying for the championship, owners are more willing to ask drivers not in the title hunt to give up positions to help teammates who are.
It happens more often than most are aware, whether it's a driver slowing to let a teammate lead a lap for five bonus points to letting him pick up a position to blocking so another Chase contender can't pick up a spot.
"I don't really like that aspect of it, but there's nothing you can do about it," two-time Cup champion Tony Stewart said. "It kind of is what it is. It goes back to really the only thing that I've disagreed with in the Chase. You've got 31 other guys that can dictate who wins the championship and who doesn't."
Stewart said it's a lot different under the new format because five points in the Chase is like 50 in the old format.
"It is much more of an impact, especially with the fields being as tight as they are now," he said. "You want the guy that wins the championship to earn it, not have a teammate give them those points."
Stewart argues the Chase drivers should have their own points' structure so they are judged by where they finish against other playoff drivers instead of the entire field.
He reiterated that angrily over his in-car radio after colliding twice with non-Chase drivers coming out of his pit stall during Saturday night's race at Lowe's Motor Speedway.
"We're not racing those other guys for points, anyway, so why should they dictate where we're at amongst each other?" asked Stewart, who is 198 points behind Gordon heading to Martinsvlle.
"If you've got five guys between two Chase guys it shouldn't matter, especially if three of them are teammates of one guy in the Chase and that guy lets three of them go to protect his guy's spot."
Series director John Darby said there's little NASCAR can do to police teammates' giving up positions.
"It's pretty hard to prove," he said. "People can make accusations, but the fortunate part is there is so much to be gained by each individual team winning a race.
"In most cases, unlike the open-wheel cats, if somebody told one of these guys to lay over, I don't think they would get much of a response on the radio."
Darby said a driver almost would have to lock up the brakes as he approached the finish line to let a teammate pass to prove intent.
"Open wheel, because their competition is so terrible, it's too obvious," he said. "There you could have to slow a car down 50 miles per hour to make that happen. In NASCAR, with the competition so darn close, it's a burp of the throttle. At that point, there is no way to prove that."
NASCAR is more concerned with teammates' blocking or intentionally running another driver into the corner to create an advantage.
"We watch for stuff every week," Darby said. "Some of it you can control and some of it you can't. Stuff you can't there's no need chasing your tail over. All you do is wind up looking like a fool at the end."
Team orders don't always have to include giving up track position. In the final laps at LMS, for example, Hendrick told Kyle Busch not to wreck Gordon in an attempt to pass for the win.
He told Gordon the same thing earlier this year at Martinsville when Gordon did everything but put Johnson into the wall trying to pass for the win.
If I was leading the race and one of my teammates was behind me and needed to win that race to clinch the championship, I've got news for him, he would have to pass me.
-- Brian Vickers
"Obviously, those teams were the priority," Vickers said. "But I wasn't going to give them anything. If I was leading the race and one of my teammates was behind me and needed to win that race to clinch the championship, I've got news for him, he would have to pass me.
"If he needed to get the 12th spot I probably would give it to him. I can promise if we were teammates or best friends in the world and it came down to the win they would have to earn it."
That's the general consensus in the garage. Some aren't happy giving up spots farther back in the field.
"I gave Carl Edwards 12th at Loudon and wasn't very happy about that because we hadn't had many good runs this year," Greg Biffle said.
Biffle didn't do it because team owner Jack Roush intervened.
"He doesn't get involved in that," he said. "There are no team orders. He'd rather say you two guys are smart, intelligent drivers. You know what he's got on the line and what you have on the line. You guys work it out. "
That's what happened at New Hampshire. Edwards and his spotter asked Biffle and his spotter if they would let him pass.
"It was clear I was going to finish no better than 12th, so I made the decision to let him go," Biffle said.
The decision would be much tougher if Biffle were leading the final lap at Homestead and Edwards needed the position for the championship.
"But I [would] probably let him go," said Biffle, who finished tied for second with Edwards in the 2005 Chase. "There's a lot on the line for those guys. And there is a lot on the line for the company, too.
"It's $6 million for winning the championship. It's $2.4 million for finishing second."
J.D. Gibbs, the team president for Joe Gibbs Racing, said he's never been in a situation in which he's had to ask a teammate to let another go by.
"I'm sure it could happen," he said. "But our guys in that situation, they're not pulling over. No matter how much we beg him."
He might be surprised to learn that Stewart might if it was the last race of the season and the title was on the line.
"Still, I don't agree with it," Stewart said. "It shouldn't be the way the championship is decided."
As bad as Busch felt when Mears was asked to let him pass for fifth at Dover, he might not be quite so generous if the situation were reversed and it meant giving up a win.
"For a win? That would be a big situation," he said. "Wins are hard to come by."
Busch hopes it never comes to that.
The same goes for Mears and Hendrick management.
"For right now, we've just got to focus on racing," Mears said. "If that scenario develops, that would be a fun problem to have. As of right now, we just want to run good week in and week out."David Newton covers NASCAR for ESPN.com. He can be reached at dnewtonespn@aol.com.
Source: ESPN.com
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