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NASCAR Sprint-Cup Series
JENSEN: Hoist A Red Bull
Red Bull Racing had gone winless since coming into the Cup Series in 2007, which made the victory something special for all connected to the team...
Tom Jensen  |  Posted August 17, 2009   Charlotte, NC
SPEED.com's Editor-in-Chief Tom Jensen. (Image: SPEED)

It’s always exciting when a new winner emerges in the NASCAR Sprint Cup circuit, and the triumph of Brian Vickers and Red Bull Racing in Sunday’s Carfax 400 at Michigan International Speedway was especially riveting.

Vickers, of course, had one previous Cup victory to his credit, when he nerfed Jimmie Johnson and Dale Earnhardt Jr. out of the way on the last lap at Talladega in 2006. But Red Bull Racing had gone winless since coming into the Cup Series in 2007, which made the victory something special for all connected to the team.

What made it especially compelling was that Vickers and crew chief Ryan Pemberton went all in going for the victory, with the entire 2009 season at stake. Vickers entered the Michigan race 14th in the Sprint Cup points standings, in dire need of a big day if he wanted to qualify for the Chase for the Sprint Cup. What he absolutely couldn’t afford was what happened to Jimmie Johnson and Mark Martin at the end of the race — run out of gas and have a terrible finish.

But Pemberton stuck to his guns and Vickers was able to save enough gas to make it work, a high-risk/high-reward strategy that paid off big and allowed Vickers to close within 12 points of 12th place with three races to go until the Chase field is set.

“I'm getting sick again just thinking about it,” Pemberton said after the race. “It felt like that was the — 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.’ I really thought the 88 (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.”

From Pemberton’s point of view, Vickers drove perfectly, saving just enough fuel to get it done.

“Brian did exactly what he needed to do,” said Pemberton. “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 got an opportunity to do it. We got some good tracks coming up. But we got to capitalize on those, as well.”


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