25 Facts About Rick Mears

Richard Ravon Mears was born on December 3,1951 and is an American former race car driver.

Rick Mears is one of four men to win the Indianapolis 500 four times and is the current record-holder for pole positions in the race with six.

Rick Mears was born in Wichita, Kansas and raised in Bakersfield, California.

Simpson then sold the car to Art Sugai, on condition that Rick Mears would continue driving it.

For 1978, Rick Mears was offered a part-time ride in nine of the 18 championship races, filling in when Andretti was overseas.

Rick Mears did not lead a lap and retired at 104 laps with a blown engine.

Rick Mears ended up sharing "Rookie of the Year" honors with Larry Rice.

Rick Mears added another win a month later at Atlanta and rounded off the year with his first road course win at Brands Hatch.

Rick Mears finished in fourth place in the points with one win, scored at Mexico City.

In 1980 Rick Mears was offered a Formula One test with Brabham by then team boss Bernie Eccelstone.

Rick Mears took interest in the test largely because of the ongoing split between CART and USAC and wanted other options in case CART fell apart.

Rick Mears tested with Brabham twice, once at Paul Ricard and once at Riverside.

Piquet was so impressed with Rick Mears' driving and enjoyed their time spent together so much that he endorsed bringing Rick Mears on as a second driver.

Rick Mears would later say in his memoir that although he felt that Brabham was a strong team and that he had the skill to compete for wins in Formula One he was unsure about moving to Europe and was still interested in oval racing as the main reasons for declining Eccelstone's offer.

Rick Mears made up the difference when Johncock suffered handling problems, but failed to secure the win.

The photo-finish muffled out the controversial pace-lap crash with teammate Kevin Cogan who appeared to have spun out for no apparent reason; fellow drivers such as Gordon Johncock, Johnny Rutherford, and Bobby Unser, charged Rick Mears with causing the crash by bringing the field down at a slow pace.

Rick Mears completed a comeback from his injuries by winning the 1985 Pocono 500.

Rick Mears used the new car to win the Indianapolis 500.

In 1991 during a practice session Rick Mears hit the wall at Indianapolis for the first time in his career.

Twenty laps from the end of the 500, it looked like Rick Mears was set to be the runner-up behind Michael Andretti.

However, when a subsequent yellow flag period erased Andretti's 15-second lead, Rick Mears gained the lead as Andretti opted to pit for fuel.

At the 1992 Indianapolis 500 Rick Mears broke a wrist in a crash during practice and then crashed out of the race for the first time in his career as he could not avoid Jim Crawford's spinning car in turn 1.

Rick Mears raced only four more times in 1992 and then announced his retirement from racing at the Penske team's Christmas party.

Rick Mears has acted as a mentor for Penske drivers Helio Castroneves, Will Power, and Scott McLaughlin.

Rick Mears married Chris Bowen in 1986 whom he divorced in 2002.