After three tough races in the Chase for the Cup, Brian Vickers needed a break to get back into contention in the NASCAR championship. He didn’t get it.
In the end, the No. 83 Red Bull Toyota driver’s run of bad luck continued in the Pepsi 500 at California’s Auto Club Speedway. Another tough Chase outing resulted in a 29th-place finish, leaving Vickers 351 points behind new leader Jimmie Johnson, who won in California.
“The Chase has been brutal for us so far,” Vickers said. “The last two races have probably been our two worst of the season. I'm looking forward to getting to [Saturday’s race at] Charlotte where we usually run well. Hopefully we can catch a break there.”
Vickers arrived in Fontana hoping to repeat his pole of earlier this season and maybe even finding the winning formula that saw him take Red Bull’s first Cup win in Michigan, the twin track to the Auto Club Speedway.
Instead, Vickers’s hopes turned out to be a case of California dreaming.
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The Red Bull driver’s fate seemed to be set after the first Friday practice session where many drivers reported their cars were behaving similarly to the way they did a week ago in Kansas. That was bad news since the Red Bull driver struggled to 37th-place finish in Kansas in what was his worst weekend of the season.
The news didn’t get any better when Vickers battled a tight car in qualifying and could only manage 32nd on the grid. But by the time final practice came along, the No. 83 crew seemed to have the car dialled in. Vickers posted the 14th best time, raising the team’s hopes for a good result.
Things went well for the first half of the race with Vickers cracking the top 15 by the time 100 laps were in the books. Just as he looked poised to erase the disappointment of the first three Chase races the gremlins appeared. “About halfway through the race it started to feel like something was wrong with the shocks,” Vickers said. “When we pitted on lap 160, the crew confirmed the right rear shock tower was broken. They put a bunch of rubbers in the right rear to compensate for no right rear shock.”
The repairs put Vickers one lap down on the leaders and ultimately led to his retirement from the race. While Vickers drove hard despite the broken shock tower and kept his car in the top-30, his position deep in the pack meant he was caught up in a big wreck with six laps to go.
'We picked up six spots by going back out'
- Brian Vickers
Vickers went low and avoided most of the accident but ended up in the back of Matt Kenseth who suddenly moved down the track and checked up directly ahead of the No. 83.
The eight-car pile-up caused a red flag that played into Team Red Bull’s favor. In the 22 minutes the race was stopped, the crew was able to repair as much damage as possible and get Vickers back into the fray to collect a few extra points.
“We received front-end damage during the wreck at the end of the race and had to go to the garage,” Vickers said. “We ended up picking up six spots by going back out.”
Although the Cup race didn’t go the way Vickers wanted, his Nationwide appearance in the No. 32 Toyota with Braun Racing saw him take second in the Copart 300.
Vickers put his car in a position to win after gambling on a late pitstop during a caution to take on fresh tires. “We took a chance there at the end and pitted and we figured more guys were going to come in behind us and they didn't so we kind of had an uphill battle to get our track position back,” he said.
“By the time we got there at the end of the race, starting fourth, I felt like we had a good shot at it even though I felt the 20 [of eventual winner Joey Logano] was a little bit better.”
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