After a couple of tough races, Red Bull Racing Team’s Scott Speed decided that it was time to make a change or two to help bring him some better luck in Phoenix.
Coming off a pair of finishes in the bottom third of the field, Speed arrived in Phoenix for the Subway Fresh Fit 600 out of the top-20 in points for the first time in 2010. And while times aren’t exactly desperate, Speed still went for some drastic measures to shake things up.
“I had to shave all the black hair because that seemed to be bad luck. I also named our car rattlesnake; I think it’s kinda mean and sounds fast, and we are in Phoenix so it fit,” said Speed, who went for a buzz cut that had him looking more like a U.S. Marine than a free-spirited racing driver.
While it worked in qualifying – Speed came away with a front-row starting position for the second time in his Sprint Cup career – things didn’t quite gel in the race. Although he hoped his open-wheel background would work to his advantage because Phoenix requires lots of braking to get around the almost flat, 1.5-mile oval quickly, it didn’t work out that way.
"I had to shave all the black hair because that seemed to be bad luck and I also named our car rattlesnake." –Scott Speed
Instead, it turned out to be a frustrating event for Speed, whose challenge ended early in the race when he ran into brake trouble. He began to report trouble stopping his No. 82 Red Bull Toyota after a handful of the scheduled 375 laps.
At the 50-lap mark, Speed had slipped down to 18th and, by the time 100 laps were done, he was already a lap down on the leaders and struggling to keep pace. He did get the lucky-dog free pass back onto the lead lap when the yellow flag flew on lap 188 due to oil on the track, but it didn’t help much. Speed finished 21st.
He’s now 22nd in points with 716, but easily within reach of the top-15, which is less than 100 points away. Three races ago, Speed was in a top-12 Chase for the Cup position.
As for teammate Brian Vickers, he’ll probably never joke about on-track trouble in a pre-race press interview again. When asked about fellow Toyota driver Denny Hamlin racing only five days following surgery to repair a torn ligament, Vickers said he thought there was more chance of running over something and blowing a tire than seeing Hamlin cause an incident due to his tender knee.
A day later, Vickers lost the back end in turn 3 after his left rear tire shredded and came off the rim, spinning him around before he hit the wall backwards. After the crash, Vickers said he felt something was wrong with the tire and probably should have pitted, but he didn’t and paid the price.
“I got really loose down in [turns] 1 and 2 and going down the backstretch, the thought dawned on me. Then, about the time I went sideways and hit the wall, I was pretty sure,” said Vickers, who suspected the tire blew after he ran over something. “I looked at the tire after I got out of the car — it was just completely ripped apart.”
Getty Images for Red Bull
Tires also caused Vickers trouble earlier in the race, as low air pressure caused his front splitter to scrape the tarmac until an early rubber change under yellow helped solve the problem.
After the crew took the damaged car to the garage for repairs, the No. 83 Red Bull Toyota rejoined the race on Lap 153, 87 laps down from the leaders in 42nd place. From there it was a matter of gaining as many spots as possible to make the best of a bad situation; Vickers managed to climb to 37th by the checkered flag.
The trouble in Phoenix made his stay in the top-12 short-lived, with Vickers dropping five spots to 17th overall with 786 points. The good news is that the tight standings mean that he's only 69 points out of a Chase for the Cup berth and just 87 behind sixth place.
Stay on track with the latest from NASCAR.com, or go to the home of the Red Bull Racing team. You can also follow Brian Vickers on Twitter.
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