After five frustrating races where anything that could go wrong did, Brian Vickers’ Twitter feed said it all: “Not bad. Was in the top five for a bit. Much better than the past few weeks. We will take it…”
Maybe it was having his 26th birthday on the eve of the Martinsville race. Perhaps it was the simple fact that a guy just can’t have that much bad luck. Whatever it was, something actually went Vickers’ way in a Chase race.
He started 24th in the Tums Fast Relief 500 and drove a trouble-free race to move up 13 spots to 11th at the chequered flag, a banner day considering the horrible luck the No. 83 Red Bull Toyota driver has experienced so far in his first Chase for the Cup. “I don’t know what it is, I can’t explain it, I can’t figure it out,” he said. “But our luck definitely turned on us once the Chase started.”
The 11th-place finish matched Vickers' best result so far in the Chase, recorded in the first playoff race in New Hampshire. And it just may signal a return to the form that saw the Red Bull driver make an incredible stretch run into the Chase from almost 200 points out.
The good fortune came on a weekend where rain interfered with the track schedule and Team Red Bull had only one practice session. Considering the limited time to get the car prepared for the tight 0.526-mile oval and Vickers’ spotty results in Martinsville, it could have been a recipe for disaster.
“I’ve had some good runs, but let’s see: the last few races here, we’ve had engine problems towards the end of the race where we ran in the top five or top 10. We had an oil leak, we had an oil plug come out and we blew an engine one time,” he said. “I think it was the last race or the race before where we led for a while, so we are capable of running well here but for some reason it always seems to bite us before the end of the race. It’s like Charlotte. I mean, how many laps have we led at Charlotte and never won a race? I can’t explain it.”
The good news was that while he had trouble getting the rubber down on the exits to the tight turns at Martinsville, Vickers persevered and moved up the leaderboard anyway. For most of the 501 laps, he ran near the top 10. With about 50 laps to go, Vickers found himself running in the top five for the first time in recent memory.
And even when the team took a chance and gambled, things fell into place. After he began to lose ground to the leaders late in the race, Vickers pitted on lap 484, during one of the last caution periods, to take on tyres. He was able to use the new boots to climb back to 11th by the finish.
Getty Images
Vickers’ goal is now to get back in the top 10 with only four races to go in the 2009 Sprint Cup, and he needs to make up 137 points. He’s now 530 points behind leader Jimmie Johnson after losing another 45 to the frontrunning driver in Martinsville. But considering that the restrictor plate Amp Energy 500 at the Talladega Superspeedway is next on the schedule, anything could happen.
Vickers’ team-mate Scott Speed ensured he had another dramatic exit from Martinsville, but probably not the kind that would endear him to his mechanics. With five laps to go, the No. 82 Red Bull Toyota driver carried too much speed into Turn 1 and lost the rear of the car. He slammed the right rear into the wall and tore off the entire trunk area of the car. Speed limped back to the pitlane with two shredded rear tyres and dragging his wing on the asphalt.
It was the second time in as many trips to Martinsville that Speed has ended his day by colliding with the wall. This time, the result was a 31st place finish, which cost him 20 points and saw a drop to 35th in the owners' standings. Speed is now 118 points back off the magic spot that guarantees him a place in the starting line-up for the first five races of 2010.
Keep up with the NASCAR team at www.redbullracingusa.com
Add a comment