Brian Vickers
Brian Vickers
Brian Lee Vickers is an American professional stock car and sports car racing driver. He last drove the No. 14 Chevrolet SS for Stewart-Haas Racing as an interim driver in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series for the injured Tony Stewart. He won the 2003 NASCAR Busch Series championship driving for Hendrick Motorsports. Vickers was also among the first series of full-time drivers for Toyota after the manufacturer first entered NASCAR...
ProfessionRace Car Driver
Date of Birth24 October 1982
CityThomasville, NC
bill boring clean daytona doctor health ready testing though
Even though testing at Daytona can be boring at times, I really wanted to be there. I got a clean bill of health from my doctor just this morning, so I'm ready to go.
guys learning past process team though together worked
Even though (McGrew) and I have worked together in the past, a lot of guys on the team were new, some were even new to Hendrick Motorsports. It was a learning process for all of us.
beginning expecting knew people success
At the beginning of the season, a lot of people were expecting success right out of the box, but even we knew that was not going to happen.
advantage blocked ended front gone harder low might momentum past run saw took
We ended up getting in front of the 24, but I saw he had a run on us. I blocked him and it took the momentum off him, but the 48 (Johnson) took advantage of that to get past him and then he got past me. Jimmie got low on me and I should have gone harder to block him, but then again, we all might have wrecked.
block blocked bottom coming harder high low might missed pulled race shot wish wrecked
I wish I'd pulled harder to the bottom to block Jimmie, but we might have wrecked too. We missed the big wrecks, and we blocked when we could, and it was a race to the finish. At this speedway ... you've got a 50-50 shot - block high or block low - when they're coming at you.
continue cylinders eight hitting knew last matter months since teams time until victory
The 5 and 25 teams have been hitting on all eight cylinders since July. I knew it was only a matter of time until one of the teams went to Victory Lane. I try not to think too much about getting that first win. We'll continue doing what we've been doing for the last two months and when it comes, it comes.
guys pushing respect
Those guys still respect him out there, and they're still pushing him to wins.
against grudge hold last pass respect win
I can't hold a grudge against him for that. If he didn't try to pass me for a win on the last lap, I don't know if I could respect that.
help
I don't know that it's necessarily going to help you go faster. But it will help you get to know the racing's facilities.
coming neither pressure rick
Rick hasn't put any pressure on me, and neither have my sponsors. The most pressure is coming from myself.
chances happen mistake next road self settle somewhere
On some levels, our sport is self-policing in that if you make a mistake and get into someone, chances are they'll settle the score. It may not happen at the next race, or the one after, but somewhere down the road it all usually evens out.
calm fastest front good pit run stops tried
It was a good run for us all day. We didn't have the fastest pit stops but we were consistent.we tried to run up front most of the day.it was pretty calm up there most of the day where we were.in the end it got a little dicey.
against easy grudge hold last pass respected sit tried win
It's easy for me to sit here and say, 'Hey, this would have been my first win, Jimmie, why did you try to pass me?' Well, this was a win for him, too. I can't hold a grudge against him for that. If he wouldn't have tried to pass me for a win on the last lap, I don't know if I would have respected that.
against expect hold lap last
When it comes down to the last lap I can't expect anything out of those guys. If they go with me, great. But if they don't, I'm not going to hold it against them.