Casey Mears did not think he would be here again.

Not in the deadline room. Not in a race car again. And certainly not racing his way into the Daytona 500.

But after surviving a spin while entering pit road and being right on the edge of elimination, Mears maximized on the opportunity and will start Sunday’s Daytona 500.

“My career pretty much had an end back in 2017, 2018,” Mears said. “To come back and just have the opportunity to do this again is a big deal. I’m kind of soaking it in and enjoying every moment. This is all a bonus round for me.”

The path back was anything but smooth.

Midway through the Duel at Daytona, Mears locked up his rear tires entering pit road during green-flag stops and spun, briefly sitting in the grass and fearing he would lose multiple laps.

At a track where drafting keeps cars tightly grouped, falling multiple laps down would have effectively ended his night.

“I was worried about going two laps down,” Mears said. “Always in my mind I feel like there’s a good possibility of a late-race caution at this track. I knew if we were one down, we’d still have some kind of chance.”

He radioed his team to stay calm. He believed something might open up.

For much of the race, it seemed unlikely. Mears acknowledged his small team lacked the raw speed to simply ride at the back and wait.

He was forced to stay in the draft, navigating the fuel-saving strategy and the tight chess match that superspeedway racing has become.

“Everything was completely stacked against us from top to bottom,” he said. “Even in the scenarios in the race, if everything played out the way everybody wanted to do their job, there’s no way we would have been where we’re at right now.”

Then opportunity came.

A last lap crash involving Corey LaJoie completely reshuffled the order, and Mears found himself suddenly in position.

“I just can’t believe we’re sitting here right now,” he said, pausing several times as he fought back tears. “I don’t even feel like I should be in this room right now. It feels good to be here. I haven’t been here in a while.”

The moment carried weight beyond just the race. Mears revealed that his wife and son had flights booked to two different cities depending on whether he qualified.

His daughter had a cheer competition in Las Vegas. If he failed to make the race, the family would gather there. If he raced his way in, they would come to Florida.

Now, they are headed to Orlando.

“It means a lot,” Mears said, his voice breaking. “I think a lot of people don’t really know and understand what the wife and kids do. … To come back and do it now, my kids, the ages they’re at, they understand what dad did for a living is cool.”

His daughter, Samantha, is 17. His son, Hayden, is 14. When Mears was racing full time earlier in his career, they were too young to fully grasp what it meant.

This time feels different.

The opportunity also meant delivering for owner Carl Long and a small operation Mears described as working out of a shop “not much bigger than this room.”

“That guy absolutely works harder than anybody in the garage,” Mears said of Long. “He is smart about how he does what he does. We knew we were going to come here and struggle and have a hard time.”

Mears, who is approaching 500 career Cup Series starts, said returning to the garage has reminded him of the relationships built over decades. He joked about not wanting younger drivers to think he’s “some crazy old guy,” but also spoke about pride in having earned respect over time.

In the Daytona 500, he plans to be patient.

“If you’re in the show, you have a shot,” Mears said. “You just have to put yourself in position and weigh out what your best result is.”

For a driver who once thought his time had passed, simply being in position again is enough. This time, he isn’t taking any of it for granted.