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NASCAR Sprint-Cup Series
CUP: No Bull - Vickers Needs Good Run
Brian Vickers enjoys fast 1.5- and 2-mile intermediate tracks...
Tom Jensen  |  Posted October 01, 2009   Charlotte, NC
Brian Vickers had heart surgery but will return to NASCAR Sprint Cup series racing in 2011. (Photo: Getty Images)

To put it bluntly, Brian Vickers knew his first appearance in the Chase for the Sprint Cup would probably get off to a challenging start.

And it has.

Vickers began the Chase at two of his least favorite tracks: New Hampshire Motor Speedway, where he finished 11th, and Dover International Speedway, where he brought the No. 83 Red Bull Toyota home a disappointing 18th.

Add it all up and you get two Chase races with an average finish of 14.5. Given that the average finish for Sprint Cup points leader Mark Martin during the same period was 1.5, you don’t have to be a math major to figure Vickers is in a fairly deep hole already.

To wit, Vickers is 10th in points, 151 behind leader Martin. With the most points a driver can make up in any one race being 161, Vickers already is in dire need of a good run. Fortunately for him, the schedule the rest of the way plays to his strengths, not his weaknesses as the first two Chase races did.

Vickers loves the so-called intermediate tracks, the fast 1.5- and 2-mile ovals that make up about half the schedule. Over the final eight races of the season, five are at intermediate tracks, starting with Sunday’s Price Chopper 400 at Kansas Speedway.

And of those five, three — Auto Club Speedway, Lowe’s Motor Speedway and Texas Motor Speedway — are places the Cup boys have already raced at this year. At those three tracks earlier this season, Vickers had one pole, one top five and two top 10s, so he’s hoping his numbers will start to improve soon.

Still, he didn’t have anything truly horrendous happen at New Hampshire or Dover, which he could take some satisfaction in.


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