JOLIET, Ill. — Casey Mears always had the family pedigree. And as of next year, he’ll have a new ride at the elite Hendrick Motorsports team.

Now he finally has a NASCAR trophy.

“It’s funny,” Mears said. “I’m very, very excited, but almost more relieved.”

Mears squirted away on a restart with 28 laps to go, then cruised to victory in Saturday’s NASCAR Busch Series race at Chicagoland Speedway.

Mears crossed the line 0.525 seconds ahead of Carl Edwards for his first career victory in a top-level NASCAR series.

“He’s a winner in the NASCAR series, and he can do it again tomorrow,” crew chief Brad Parrott said. Mears, the nephew of four-time Indianapolis 500 champion Rick Mears, is leaving Chip Ganassi Racing at the end of the year to drive for Hendrick. Ganassi considered taking Mears out of the Busch car after announcing he was leaving, but Parrott lobbied the team owner to let Mears keep driving.

“I told Chip that he’s our driver,” Parrott said.

Edwards tried to chase down Mears in the closing laps, forcing Mears — who was running low on gas and ran dry trying to drive to Victory Lane — to dive aggressively to the apron on the final lap to get around two lapped cars.

Mears lost the Busch Series race in Charlotte in May when his car ran low on gas and began to sputter, allowing Edwards to drive to victory.

“Congratulations to Casey,” Edwards said. “He’s just one of the nicest guys in the world.”

Jeff Burton finished third as Nextel Cup regulars swept the top 10.

Johnny Sauter finished 17th, making him the top-finishing driver who isn’t a regular in the Cup series.

Burton also will be on the pole for Sunday’s Nextel Cup race at Chicagoland, giving him a good chance to earn his first Cup victory since 2001.

“I feel good about it, but I’m also smart enough to know that every team out there is working hard to make their car better,” Burton said.

Kevin Harvick finished fourth and retained the Busch Series points lead. Harvick leads Edwards in the standings by 323 points.

Matt Kenseth finished fifth.

The dominant showing by Cup drivers on Saturday is likely to re-ignite the long-simmering debate about Cup drivers racing in the Busch Series in their free time.

Before Saturday’s race, Dale Earnhardt Jr. said he thought NASCAR should make a rule to limit Cup drivers’ participation in the Busch Series, unless they were running the full schedule to compete for the championship.

Burton suggested after the race that NASCAR should make the technical specifications of Busch Series cars “radically different” than Cup cars, creating less incentive for Cup teams to use Busch races as extended research and development sessions.

Still, Burton said having Cup drivers in these races gives Busch drivers a chance to prove themselves and attracts more fans to watch the races.

“You can choose to embrace it, or fight it,” Burton said.

David Gilliland, who snapped a long winning streak by Cup drivers in the Busch Series with his surprising victory in the June 17 Busch Series race at Kentucky, finished 26th, two laps behind the leaders.

Edwards and Kurt Busch dominated the early stages of the race, but Busch was shuffled back in the pack on a late round of pit stops and couldn’t make his way through traffic. He finished sixth.

The race was slowed nine times for caution flags - including on the first lap, when Denny Hamlin spun out and collected Kyle Busch and Martin Truex Jr.

Hamlin and Paul Menard later collided on lap 121, sending Menard into the wall. Truex narrowly avoided hitting Menard as his car slid down the racetrack.

Notes

• In Saturday’s pre-race drivers’ meeting, NASCAR president Mike Helton warned competitors that officials will continue to issue stiffer penalties for rules violations. Helton will repeat his warning to Nextel Cup drivers and crew chiefs Sunday, NASCAR spokesman Ramsey Poston said.
• The track has sold out its grandstand seats for Sunday’s race — all of which are season tickets — for the sixth straight year.