Filed under: Brian Vickers, Sprint Cup

THE SEASON: For a third year team in the Sprint Cup Series, Brian Vickers certainly wheeled his No. 83 Toyota to a season that would put a charge in the Red Bull Racing holiday party.

Securing the team's first win and first berth in NASCAR's Chase for the Sprint Cup will do that.

Vickers was an integral part of the biggest crash in the season-opening Daytona 500, but his season was markedly more successful than the key contributor to that accident, Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Though he had won once previously with Hendrick Motorsports, Vickers earned the first win for Red Bull at Michigan International Speedway in August during a fuel mileage race. While a fuel mileage finish was certainly no surprise at the track, it was surprising that Vickers used the finish to his advantage to gain his first win at the track.

In fact, Vickers has been quite strong at Michigan in years past -- fuel mileage finish or not. He's got 5 straight top-5s at the track and also three straight poles.

Vickers earned his second victory of the season -- his Chase berth -- with a hard fought battle in the final Chase cutoff race at Richmond. He drove to a 7th-place finish in what was likely the most pressure-packed race of his career to beat Kyle Busch into the Chase by 8 points.

From there, though, the No. 83 stumbled. Despite 9 consecutive pre-Chase races with finishes of 12th or higher, the 10-race Chase saw Vickers take 20th or worse six times.

THE STATISTICS:
Best Finish - 1st, Michigan
Worst Finish - 39th, Daytona
Top-5s - 4
Top-10s - 13
Total Laps Led - 101
Percent of Laps Completed - 96.6

THE FUTURE: Going into his fourth season as a member of Red Bull Racing, Brian Vickers is going to be expected to continue to the up the ante on his performance.

The team has now shown that it can compete at several tracks and they've broken the icebergs of both winning and making the Chase for the Sprint Cup. Now, the team is going to need to focus onmaking such achievements a consistent measure.

Teammate Scott Speed showed signs of future success at times, but Vickers will continue to serve as the team's flagship brand in NASCAR. Based on his strong runs at several of the 1.5-mile tracks -- notably at his hometown Lowe's Motor Speedway -- Vickers needs to be a guy in 2010 that isn't a surprise to win.

Should the team solve what hurt them in the Chase and erase the bad luck, Vickers should again be a guy who is battling for a right to go for the Sprint Cup title.

 

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