MARTINSVILLE, Va. -- Post-race at Martinsville Speedway is akin to a rush of lemmings off a cliff; if you need someone, you better find 'em quick -- and otherwise, get out of the way.

But behind Hendrick Motorsports' No. 5 hauler Sunday evening after the TUMS QuikPak 500, the only things breaking out were smiles in celebration of Casey Mears' sixth-place finish.

And from the organization side, even more of a celebration was in order as Mears' teammates all finished in front of him at a track where Hendrick cars have won nine of the last 12 races, including Sunday with Jimmie Johnson.

"It was a great day for Hendrick Motorsports, period," Mears said. "I mean, I think that we came back from not being able to qualify, unfortunately we're back in the points and had to start 23rd, but we were able to do a little strategy and got some track position.

"I ended up having a lot of fun. I had a good racecar and we were able to race guys all day long, and that makes it fun. We haven't had a whole lot of those this year, so it was a good time."

Mears' run, his best result since he finished fifth at Infineon Raceway, an eons-old 16 races ago; was only his fifth top-10 of the season.

But rather than reflect on what might have been in 2008, as well as in his two years with Hendrick; after clasping hands with crew chief Alan Gustafson, Mears looked ahead at the four races he has left in his HMS Chevy and said a win was definitely possible at the 1.5-mile tracks coming up in Atlanta, Texas and Homestead and even at the peculiar Phoenix mile.

"I think so [because] I think we've really come on," Mears said. "We've finally learned what we need on the bigger tracks. I'm really looking forward to Atlanta. The pit crew has actually stepped it up, too.

"We had some trouble earlier this year and they've stepped it up, so I think everybody's in a position right now to pull off a win before the year is out."

On Sunday, owner Rick Hendrick's obvious dominance at Martinsville came more and more into focus as the 500 laps wound down. In the end, Hendrick's lead dog, two-time defending Cup champion Johnson had padded his current point lead with his fourth victory in his last five Martinsville starts.

“

I ended up having a lot of fun. I had a good racecar and we were able to race guys all day long, and that makes it fun. We haven't had a whole lot of those this year, so it was a good time.

”

-- CASEY MEARS

His teammates, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Jeff Gordon, were second and fourth, respectively, but it was Mears -- who became a father for the first time only 12 days previously -- who turned the most heads, right down to a two-lap battle with Denny Hamlin, via a green-white-checkered finish attempting to get a fourth HMS car into the top five.

Even though Mears is the only one of the four Hendrick men not in the Chase for the Sprint Cup, and given the obvious joy his daughter has brought into his life; cutting any breaks to his championship-contending teammates never entered his mind.

"I was thinking about how I could get around 'em, to be honest," Mears said of not only the Hendrick trio in front of him but also Hamlin, another Chase contender. "Obviously, we're gonna give 'em a little more room than we give that next guy, but at the same time, we're trying to have a good finish, too.

"We were racing hard there at the end. Our car got better and better as the race went on. We were running Jeff [Gordon] down there for a second and I was thinking about what I was going to have to do to get by him. Obviously we wanted to do it as clean as possible.

"But fortunately, everybody ran well [Sunday] and Jimmie did what he needed to do."

And as Mears raced lap after lap at the end, behind three of this year's teammates and directly in front of two of the guys he'll race with next season -- Richard Childress Racing leader Kevin Harvick, who finished right behind him in seventh and Clint Bowyer, who was 10th -- he thought about that dynamic more than you might think.

"It passes through your mind -- I mean, it does," Mears said. "For a split second under caution, maybe, when you have a second to think about it, [you say], 'OK, I have next year's team behind me and this year's team in front of me -- how do you play this out and go racing but not mess anybody up?'

"At the end of the day, the only answer to that is to go racing. You can't really think about that, you just have to do the best job you can and try not to put them in a scenario that would jeopardize the finish."

As the lemmings streamed out of Martinsville around him, it seemed obvious that Mears, with a solid shot in the next four races via his current team; another solid unit he's heading to next season; and a two-week-old bundle of joy waiting at home was pretty satisfied with his current location.