Red Bull Racing's Brian Vickers surges to fifth-place finish at Indianapolis
INDIANAPOLIS - Red Bull Racing's Brian Vickers wants to make news with his racing, not his contract status. Sunday, he did just that.
The Red Bull Racing driver, who has an oral commitment from the organization for next season but not a signed contract, raced among the leaders throughout Sunday's NASCAR Sprint Cup Allstate 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. He finished fifth, tying his top performance of the season, but wasn't as pleased with the result as one might expect.
“It was a good race, but not satisfied – by no means," Vickers said. "We had a really good car in the test and here in practice. We really wanted to come here and win this race. The 5 [of Mark Martin] and the 48 [of Jimmie Johnson] were really strong. I think when we were at our best, if we would have had the track position then we could have stayed out in front of them. It was very difficult to pass and track position meant a lot. The pit guys did a great job."
Vickers blamed misfortune for his final result as well. He said that he suspected he had a tire issue, but no one could isolate it during the race's final caution period.
"Our luck bit us in the butt," he said. "We had a great car and we had a left-rear [tire] go down on the last run. I thought I felt something right before we went back green and I asked [Kevin] Harvick behind us and the 9 [of Kasey Kahne] beside us to check our tires – it wasn’t low enough for them to notice anything.
"We just found out it was down to less than 15 pounds there at the end of the race. It just killed us. We just got really, really tight because of that and it’s frustrating.”
Still, it was a good points day for the team. Vickers crept up a spot in the standings, to 15th, and is 120 points behind the 12th-place team with six races to go before the field is set for the Chase For The Sprint Cup.
He says that he's not caught up in the points race - though he is keeping an eye on it.
"I try not to be consumed by it, but it's obviously a consideration, something on our minds," he said.
