Brian Vickers, Red Bull Racing firmly focused on Chase berth
Red Bull Racing driver Brian Vickers (right) and crew chief Ryan Pemberton talk earlier this season. // Ivan Veldhuizen, NASCAR Scene
Brian Vickers knows that his team can afford to gamble a little right now. But even he didn't expect crew chief Ryan Pemberton to try to stretch the fuel mileage in his car Sunday at Michigan International Speedway.
The call to do so, though, netted Vickers the win in the Carfax 400 - and moved him to within 12 points of his first berth in NASCAR's Chase For The Sprint Cup. It gave Red Bull Racing its first victory in three seasons of fielding Cup teams and provided a morale boost for a group that entered the race with an outside shot at a berth in the 12-team championship field.
Those vying for a spot in the Chase field find themselves taking some unusual chances these days. Count Vickers among that crop - or previously among that group, anyway. He entered the race weekend 14th in the standings, 96 outside of the top 12, and seeking his second career Cup victory. The first came in 2006 at Talladega Superspeedway when he was driving for Hendrick Motorsports.
He left it with the mere 12-point deficit on the Chase field.
How did he and his Red Bull team do it? By nursing his fuel mileage to 51 laps in a race where drivers were running dry on much less than that.
Why did they do it? Because Vickers and Pemberton have kept their attention firmly on making the Chase.
"You put a stake in the ground, and it's either going to be, we're either out of it, completely out of the Chase, or we're gonna win the race," Pemberton said. "I really thought the 88 [of Dale Earnhardt Jr.] was coming. I thought he was going to be the one we were going to have to beat. He was the one that had fuel. I think he had enough fuel to make it.
"Brian did exactly what he needed to do. I told him exactly what we needed. I referenced the last race here. So he knew about what program he had to be on to make it happen. He did that. You talk about the sickening feeling, what a relief to get that one over with. It was. If we ran out, that was going to be - we'd be talking the rest of the season about something else, that's not being in the Chase. Right now we [have] got an opportunity to do it. We got some good tracks coming up. But we [have] got to capitalize on those, as well."
Vickers expected the team to be racing a bit more conservatively. The Chase was just four races away and he had been slowly but steadily inching up on the frontrunners.
So when Pemberton made the call to stay out, Vickers was a little surprised.
"I [have] got to say at the moment it wasn't what I expected him to do just because knowing where we're at in the Chase, that is the situation," Vickers said. "But it was the right call. The minute he made it, I had complete faith in it. He hasn't run me out of fuel yet. Usually when he tells me we're going to be two laps short, I get him two, we're good. If he tells me four, I get him four, we're good.
"I had complete confidence in that."
That kind of confidence could be the group's ticket to going from a 2007 organization trying to make races to one that is in 2009 contending for the title.
While their current battle to get there might be a surprise to some, it's not to the group that entered the season thinking it could battle for the title.
Vickers finished 38th in the series standings in 2007, the first season for Red Bull in the Cup ranks. He moved up to 19th last season before making his Chase bid this year.
It's something the team felt it could do, this business of winning a race and then battling for a Chase berth. All the hard work they put into getting there might have made this all the more enjoyable.
"The team has come a long way in the last two-and-a-half years," team general manager Jay Frye said. "I'm sure in 2007 Brian had some questions about what the future was going to hold. One of the things we did last fall with the change was hiring Ryan, when we got him to come over here. Really at that point there was never any question in my mind about putting two people together that would have great success for a very long time.
"I think they're both in similar stages in their careers, where they've done great things, but together I believe they can do some really great things. I think today was a culmination of that. So obviously winning the race, get the most points, won the race, only 12 points out going into next week. We're still obviously eligible for the Chase. Our goal this year is to win a race and make the Chase. We've accomplished one of our goals. We're still eligible for one of our other ones.”
