Vickers hoping he can pick up Chase - DailyBulletin.com

Vickers hoping he can pick up Chase - DailyBulletin.com

NASCAR drivers typically don't like to see their names and crash in the same sentence. But there is really no other way to describe how Brian Vickers qualified for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Chase.

Photo: Chase for the Sprint Cup first-time contender Brian Vickers, driver of the No. 83 Red Bull Toyota, spun out in the infield grass in Turn 4 to bring out the caution on lap 149 during Sunday's NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Price Chopper 400 presented by Kraft Foods at the Kansas Speedway. It wasn't a good day for Vickers, who ended up finishing in 37th after having engine problems. (Photo Credit: Rusty Jarrett/Getty Images for NASCAR)

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Why Brian Vickers thinks he can win the Chase

Brian Vickers is the most unlikely of drivers in the NASCAR Chase for the Sprint Cup. He secured the final spot in the Chase with a seventh-place finish at Richmond International Raceway and moved from 13th to eighth place in the Chase standings.
What makes Vickers’ surge even more remarkable is that he said Richmond is one of the tracks his team has struggled at in the past. Richmond, New Hampshire and Dover are admittedly three of the tracks he and his team do not like racing at. Partly by design, partly by circumstance, those three tracks have produced poor results for Vickers and his No. 83 Red Bull Racing team for the past three years.
“The two tracks we just left are probably two of our worst,” Vickers said. “I’d like to be a little higher than we are right now in the points. We knew we weren’t probably going to be leading coming out of Dover, but we knew we could at least be within striking distance. I still feel like we are. We’re probably about 30 or 40 points further back than I wish. My goal was to come out of the first two races in the top 10. We came very close to that. We put ourselves in position to do that.”
Vickers was 11th at New Hampshire International Speedway, the first race of the Chase. He was 18th at Dover. After two races in the Chase, Vickers is 10th in the Cup standings and 151 points out of first.
Vickers and crew chief Ryan Pemberton are focused on the next eight races of the Chase. The 1.5-mile ovals, Kansas Speedway, Texas Motor Speedway, Lowe’s Motor Speedway and Homestead-Miami Speedway, have been the types of tracks the Red Bull Racing team has been focusing on since its inception three years ago. Vickers said that was the approach from the start and it is at those tracks where his team is at its best.
“When we started this team, we had to start with nothing,” Vickers said. “We had to pick, we only had so many resources, we got to focus on something. Let’s focus on mile-and-a-half race tracks. A lot race tracks are high downforce, mile, 1.5 and up. Let’s pull our resources there because it’s going to have the biggest impact. That’s what we did and we excelled at those race tracks and we learned a lot. It took time, but we excelled at them.”
Pemberton added Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, site of race No. 4 in the Chase, to the list of tracks that he expects his team to post a good result.
“The rest of the race tracks, we feel confident,” Pemberton said. “We feel like we got a good set-up for and good strategy for getting the car where it needs to be on these tracks that are coming up: California, Kansas, Charlotte. We feel like we got a good baseline going into that weekend. We do have better races in front of us than behind us.”
It’s taken some time, but Vickers said his team has gained the confidence to be competitive at the 1.5-mile tracks. His only win with Red Bull Racing came at Michigan International Speedway in August, a 2-mile speedway.
“Once we reached that level where we felt like we could win at those tracks, then we started to spread our resources toward the short tracks,” Vickers said. “We got better, but it took time. It’s going to take time. Short tracks aren’t our best tracks. The concrete tracks aren’t our best. I believe that they can be our best. What’s our best right now is what we focused on.”
With four races on 1.5-mile tracks and one at Auto Club Speedway, a 2-mile speedway, Vickers said he expects to rise in the Chase standings. He also is confident in his team’s ability to improve because of how his team performed in the 10 races prior to the start of the Chase.
Vickers scored 1,205 points in the 10 races leading up to the start of the Chase. By comparison, that is more than 100 points better than the top three drivers in the Chase standings. Mark Martin scored 1,074 points in the 10 races leading up to the start of the Chase. Jimmie Johnson recorded 1,049 and Juan Pablo Montoya had 1,096.
Vickers said if his team can repeat that type of run, he will have a chance to win the Chase.
“I’m pleased with making the Chase,” Vickers said. “I’m pleased with what all we’ve accomplished to date. But our goal now is to win the championship. I think we’re capable of it. It doesn’t mean we will. That’s a tall order for a young team. The 10 weeks prior to the Chase we collected more points than anyone on average. That’s essentially what you have to do to win the championship, be the best for 10 weeks. We proved that we could do that. That doesn’t guarantee that we can do it again, but I think we proved that we can do it.”

Photo: Brian Vickers enjoyed a hot streak in the Race to the Chase and came into Richmond in 13th place, one position out of Chase contention. He finished seventh at Richmond and qualified for the Chase. (Photo Credit: Streeter Lecka/Getty Images)

Vickers says worst tracks are behind him

In an exclusive interview, Brian Vickers said his worst tracks are behind him and he hopes to make up some ground in the next few races of the Chase.
Vickers, the driver of the No. 83 Toyota for Red Bull Racing, is making his first Chase appearance. His first two races haven't been that impressive and he sits 10th in the Chase standings. But he said he wasn't expecting to have great finishes at Dover or New Hampshire, tracks that have given his team troubles in the past.
He said he is looking forward to the races at Kansas Speedway, Lowe's Motor Speedway, Texas Motor Speedway and Auto Club Speedway, tracks that have been kinder to him in the past and tracks where his team has posted some productive finishes.
Auto Club Speedway in Fontana is similar in distance and design to Michigan International Speedway, the site of Vickers only NASCAR Sprint Cup Series win this season. The Fontana race is Oct. 11 and the fourth race in the Chase.
More to come...

Photo: Brian Vickers (83) and Denny Hamlin (11) were the lowest two finishers among Chase drivers, finishing 18th and 22nd, respectively, Sunday at Dover International Speedway. (Photo Credit: Chris Trotman/Getty Images)

Vickers' gas man young at heart and body

Doug Newell, the gas man for the Brian Vickers' No. 83 Toyota for Red Bull Racing, is one of the oldest crew members, if not the oldest crew members in NASCAR.
He turned 50 in May. Part of the reason he has been able to work on a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series pit crew at such a seasoned age is because he started working for Cup team pit crews in his late 30s. He spent much of his early days in NASCAR working for teams in the old Southwest Series and Winston West.
Another reason for Newell's ability to stay in NASCAR into his 50s is because he been active and fit since he was attending Hueneme High School.
"I’ve always played sports and done sports," said Newell, who grew up in Oxnard and was M.K. Kanke's crew chief in the Southwest Series. "All the years I did Southwest Tour racing, I would run or ride bikes for myself. Our races were short. We ran maybe two or three races a year where we actually did pit stops. Back then I was a tire changer. There’s a definite wear and tear factor there, but we didn’t do enough of it to really abuse me."
Newell ran track and cross country in high school. He played a little football and was on his college lacrosse team at Oregon State. He was also on the rowing team at Oregon State. Those low impact sports kept him in good shape and didn't wear down his body like some other sports would.
"Talking to our coach now -- we have a strength and conditioning coach that works with us at Red Bull -- one of the advantages that I’ve had is that all the sports I have played in my life I haven’t played contact sports," Newell said. "The second one is I’m not one of those fanatic workout guys that measure every gram of fat that they eat. For the most part I’ve tried to stay relatively healthy and eat well. I never really went over the wall until I turned 40, as for doing it every week. The fact that I’m doing it at 50, I’ve only been really doing it for 10 years."

New Truck Series rules

The newly named NASCAR Camping World Truck Series has a few rule changes regarding pit stops, pit crews and engines. Some drivers like the changes. Todd Bodine, who won the season-opening Truck Series race in Daytona, has some reservations.
I had a story in the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin about the changes.
I will be covering the NASCAR in Fontana for the Daily Bulletin and the Ventura County Star this weekend. One of the crew members for Brian Vickers and his No. 83 Sprint Cup Series team grew up in Oxnard and graduated from Hueneme High School in 1976.
Plus I will be writing for The Signal next week, complete with updates from the Hornadays and Lance Hooper, a Saugus High graduate and former Saugus Speedway racer who is making a run in the Truck Series after a five-year absence.
Let me know if you have any questions for the drivers. I will do my best to track some of them down.

NASCAR rookies: Joey Logano and Scott Speed

Joey Logano is already getting a lot of attention mainly because he will be driving the car that yielded two Cup championships for Tony Stewart. The rookie driver will be joining the powerful Joe Gibbs Racing team with high expectations.
Another rookie who will probably surprise a few this year is Scott Speed. The 25-year-old who was born in Manteca will be driving the No. 82 Toyota for the two-car Red Bull Racing team. Speed is coming from a Formula One background, but made the transition to stock cars and NASCAR last year. He won a race in the Truck Series after a disappointing stint with Toro Rosso in Formula One.
Brian Vickers, Speed's teammate at Red Bull Racing, was asked about the two rookies, Logano and Speed and how they will perform in their first full year of NASCAR Sprint Cup Series racing.

“The thing about a race team -- we’re not golfers. There are 200 people involved in our team," Vickers said. "To always just point the finger at the driver -- whether it’s good or bad, it goes both ways. Just because you win a race, doesn’t mean he’s a great driver. Just because you lose one, doesn’t mean he’s a bad one. I think it’s a team effort. Although Joey struggled last year, to be honest with you, unless you’re involved, it’s hard to say why. He’s obviously proved himself. He deserves to be here. He’s a talented driver.”

Speed said he has a lot to learn about stock cars and racing in NASCAR. He says he's about half way up the learning curve and will need some time to get comfortable in Cup.
"We won a race in a truck at Dover (Del.). Were we the best truck driver out there? By no means," Speed said. "I am way better now than when I won that. Because of the way things worked out, we were in good equipment the whole time and we had really good results. We had really good equipment in the ARCA championship, we won some races, but it really doesn’t account for how much I’ve learned or how good I am. I’m certainly better now than I was at the end of last year. I’m improving every time by a fair step and that’s got to be said. I think some things have come easier to learn and some things have been more difficult.”