1994 Mercury Sable Car feels like its braking on its own --

(long time reader, first time question)

Hi,

I read somewhere that a fuel mileage problem was traced back to a rear brake shoe problem.
I became a bit influenced, and I do hear a squeak coming from my right rear tire whenever I leave my driveway. Fuel mileage is horrible and besides a heavy fuel smell that I can't seem to find, I actually think the car is slowing down, maybe due to a frozen brake pad.

I've tried testing it too. Speeding up to 60 and then putting it in neutral to try and cop a feel for an unusual slowdown rate. Trouble is, I don't have a reference to measure the slowdown rate from a free-spinning car.

Any ideas?

I'm gonna jack up the car and spin its rears to compare freeplay. After that I'm in the dark as to how to adjust the shoes to release my wheels from this binding situation.

Thanks