Brian Vickers thought he had a car that could run in the top-10 all day but the close quarters at the Martinsville Speedway didn’t make it easy for him to take full advantage in Monday’s Goody’s Fast Pain Relief 500.
Things looked good in the early going as Vickers ran comfortably near the front before Dale Earnhardt Jr. got inside of him in a battle for eighth place on lap 143, bumping the No. 83 Red Bull Toyota hard. Vickers got sideways and lost precious momentum that dropped him to 16th in the blink of an eye. Then he lurked just outside the top-10 for the next 350 laps until the race came to him.
With 10 laps to go, Jeff Burton hit the wall and brought out a caution, setting up a wild finish. Vickers took a chance and pitted for new boots with seven laps to go and emerged in the 13th spot. He climbed to eighth before another crash brought out a yellow with one lap left, setting up a green-white-checkered finish. The green waved again on Lap 506 and Vickers gained another two spots in the final two laps that looked more like bumper cars than racing. He ended the day sixth, taking his best finish in six races in 2010.
"We battled all day to get our track position back... It was an awesome job all around.” -Brian Vickers
“That was exactly what we needed as a team to get our momentum back,” Vickers said. “[Crew chief] Ryan [Pemberton] made a great call at the end for four tires. It was a gamble that paid off for us.”
The race ran a day late after showers on Sunday afternoon forced NASCAR to postpone the event on the almost flat 0.526-mile Martinsville oval. Rain started about an hour before the start on Sunday and when its increasing intensity made it obvious the weather would not cooperate, the race was rescheduled for noon on Monday. Rain also washed out qualifying, putting Vickers 14th on a starting grid that was set according to owner points.
The delay turned out to be good luck for Vickers, whose second top-10 result in the past three races helped push him into a Chase for the Cup position for the first time this year. The sixth place was also his best-ever finish on a short track in 32 starts. He’s now 12th overall with 734 points in a tight race where only 164 points separate the first dozen cars.
Getty Images/Red Bull Photofiles
Getting into a Chase berth early was exactly what Vickers wanted at the beginning of 2010, saying that the team needed to get into the top 12 long before race 26, when the dozen-driver field who will battle for the championship is set. Last year, Vickers made the championship party after an amazing nine-race surge into the top 12, but the run left the Red Bull squad too drained to mount a serious title challenge.
This year, Vickers wants to be solidly in the top 12 and be in a position to use the team’s energy to prepare for the Chase long before it starts. Getting there was doubly satisfying for Vickers because he drove through adversity for most of Monday's race before putting in a strong finishing kick.
“We struggled all race with the drive,” he said. “The guys made a bunch of adjustments in the pits to correct the condition and we battled all day to get our track position back after a few incidents earlier in the race cost us some spots on the track. It was an awesome job all around.”
Getty Images/Red Bull Photofiles
Things did not go as well for teammate Scott Speed, who started 18th and ran well early until a heavy crash 51 laps into the race ended any chance of a good result. A seriously damaged front end required repair, which put him 12 laps down by the time he returned to action. He finished 33rd, 17 laps behind the leaders.
The tough day cost Speed in the points standings, dropping him out of the top–20 for the first time in 2010 to 21st at 616 points.
Stay on track with Vickers and Speed at RedBullRacingUSA.com.
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