NASCAR Driver Profile 2010: Brian Vickers

Brian Vickers and his Toyota Team Red Bull made the NASCAR Race to the Chase in their third full season, putting the struggles of their initial season in 2007 behind them. Vickers made the NASCAR Chase, despite finishing in the top five only four times and scoring only 12 top tens. Vickers did score his first victory for Red Bull at the Michigan Carfax 400.

Vickers has worst point total of any driver since new system began.
Brian Vickers and his team did everything they could to get in the NASCAR Race to the Chase and it was obvious that the team didn't perform as well in the Chase. Vickers actually set a mark no one wants to beat, as he scored the lowest point total of any driver that ever made a NASCAR Race to the Chase, ultimately finishing 12th overall.

Vickers bounced back from a controversial start to the 2009 NASCAR season.
In the first race of the 2009 NASCAR season, the Daytona 500, Vickers tangled with fan favorite, Dale Earnhardt Jr. The wreck that ensued destroyed half the field and did not endear Vickers to the Dale Earnhardt Jr. fans. Vickers and Earnhardt Jr. were running down the back stretch as Vickers blocks Earnhardt Jr. and then Earnhardt Jr.turns Vickers into the approaching pack of cars. See video of the Fox Sports telecast here.

Vickers season improved from that point on and he may not have had more than 12 top tens but he was consistently in the top 15. Now that Vickers has shown that his upstart Team Red Bull can compete, the challenge will be to help his teammate, Scott Speed make progress in 2010. Speed has shown he can win in every version of NASCAR, just not NASCAR Sprint Cup.

Vickers leaves the strongest team in NASCAR to start a new team.
When Vickers signed up with Team Red Bull at the end of 2006, he was leaving the most successful NASCAR team in modern NASCAR history. Vickers was racing for legendary NASCAR owner Rick Hendrick in 2006 and was almost an after thought on the Hendrick roster. When Kyle Busch replaced Terry Labonte in the #5 Kelloggs car, Vickers quickly went to the number four driver on a team with tons of talent.

Vickers did score one win before moving on to Red Bull Toyota team. Vickers won at the famed Talladega Superspeedway, just a month before leaving the team. The win at Talladega was not without controversy, as Vickers was running third behind teammate Jimmy Johnson and Dale Earnhardt Jr. Vickers saw his chance and gave a bump that sent Earnhardt Jr. and Johnson spinning to the infield, while Vickers rushed to his first checkered flag. See a replay of the crash here.

First season of #83 Red Bull Racing was one to forget.
Starting the season with no provisionals because they were a new team, Vickers struggled through a rough first season. Vickers was forced to race his way in to every race in 2007 and and ended up finishing outside the top 35 in 2007, finishing 38th. Vickers also failed to qualify for 13 races, something Vickers had rarely had to experience in his short career.

2008 was a season Vickers used to establish himself and qualify for every race. Vickers made progress towards winning his first race for the #83 team, finishing second at Pocono and scoring his first pole for Toyota Team Red Bull ever.

2010 is the next step for Vickers.
Now that Vickers has asserted himself as a force to be reckoned with, he will need to advance to the next level in 2010. Nothing short of making the NASCAR Race to the Chase and performing well in it, will be considered a success.

Ryan Pemberton will again crew chief for Brian Vickers and the combination looks like it works well. Pemberton comes from a family that grew up in the NASCAR garages and Ryan's brother is vice president of competition for NASCAR. Pemberton started with Jack Roush and worked his way through the ranks to become a NASCAR crew chief.

sources:
www.nascar.com
www.speedtv.com
www.espn.go.com