A spin, a patch of grass and inches from a crash, Casey Mears still makes the Daytona 500

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Casey Mears spun on pit road, got briefly stuck in the infield grass and missed a last-lap crash by mere inches. After all that, he finished eighth a qualifying race Thursday night for the Daytona 500, good enough to get him into “The Great American Race.”

Mears choked back tears three separate times after squeezing into the 41-car field as the highest-finishing “open” car in the first of two 150-mile qualifying races. Anthony Alfredo earned the final spot in the starting lineup in the second qualifier.