Vickers disappointed, but prepared to move on

CONCORD, N.C. -- Brian Vickers is doing his best to put last weekend behind him. He's trying his best to not think about the black flag that kept him from winning his first NASCAR Busch Series race.

He's working hard on trying to forget the O'Reilly 300 at Texas Motor Speedway. But when something is within your grasp, and then it's gone, that's difficult.

"It's not easy," Vickers said. "I try to represent myself in the manner my mother and father brought me up and not act like an idiot about it. But it's not easy at all. The only thing I can do, and what I'm going to do, and what my team is going to do is take this and add it as fuel to the fire.

	After a black flag and a wreck Saturday, Vickers finished 25th at Texas. Credit: Autostock

"We're going to use it as more reason to go out and dominate another race. It gave us another reason to show the community and NASCAR and fans that we deserved to win that race and why we deserve to win another one."

Vickers had the dominant car, leading 87 laps Saturday, but with 22 laps to go, it all went wrong. Though he was the leader, Vickers wasn't the first car to take the green. There were a couple of cars in front of him at the end of the lead lap, and one was Chad Blount.

Blount had a problem and didn't take off quickly. As he moved to the right, Vickers went to the left to take the green flag. Vickers didn't get completely past Blount before the start-finish line, but NASCAR displayed the black flag, saying Vickers was in the act of passing.

Vickers was put at the end of the lead lap but was later caught up in a multi-car wreck. He finished 25th.

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And now comes the hard part. Getting over it.

"I'm not going to let it ruin my day or the rest of my week or my life, but I'm still very disappointed in what happened," Vickers said. "I'm still very proud of the team, the sponsors, my owner Mr. (Rick) Hendrick, all the people throughout the garage and the fans that have supported us and the fact we should have won that race."

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Hendrick told him to hang in there and that he was proud of his young driver. But that's not the only support Vickers has gotten.

"I had practically every crew chief, car owner and driver come to me after the race or call me after the race and tell me that it was a bad call and I should have won the race," Vickers said. "That's obvious. I had Cup drivers that I didn't even know knew who I was or had my cell phone number call me and tell me I deserved to win that race."

Vickers said he respects NASCAR and all it has done for the sport over the years, "but I completely disagree with their call."

"I understand what they have to do, and it's very hard," Vickers said. "People make mistakes. But this is one of the ones where they messed up."

The rule is a pretty simple one, at least in Vickers' mind.

"The rule was not to pass before the start-finish line on the left, unless the guy in front of you has problems -- he misses a shift or you have to do something to avoid wrecking a bunch of cars," Vickers said. "Well, my problem was, that's exactly what happened."

Blount missed a shift, Vickers said, and turned to the right. There was no room for him to go to Blount's right, and Vickers said he even let off the accelerator.

"I went to the left to keep from hitting him and stacking up 20 cars behind me," Vickers said. "I felt they would have been pleased with me not wrecking 20 cars. But I still let off the gas to keep from passing him, even though, according to the rules, if it's to avoid a wreck, I still have the right to continue on my way. I still let off and stayed beside him. I did not pass him. I did not pass anybody before the start-finish line.

"I could have passed all three of them and not improved my position because I was the leader. But not even counting that, I didn't pass (Blount)."

Vickers said he has had people pull beside him to his left on restarts before, including twice at Darlington this year, but no one was penalized. And no one should've been penalized, Vickers said.

According to NASCAR officials, Vickers was in the "act of passing" -- a phrase Vickers had never heard before Saturday -- when his front bumper got by Blount's rear bumper.

"If that's how NASCAR feels it should be, then I respect that decision," Vickers said. "I don't have a problem with that. They've taken the sport a long way. They know what's best for the sport. My problem is if they feel like passing is the act of my front bumper passing his rear bumper, then they should've said that before the race, not during the race."

Vickers is confident that NASCAR will clarify the rule, and he wants to know before the start of the race at Talladega what passing is and what it is not.

NASCAR president Mike Helton said Sunday at the Winston Cup drivers' meeting that the act of passing "is when NASCAR deems that momentum is taking place before the start-finish line."

That was too late for Vickers.

Life goes on, and Vickers is still looking for his first victory.

"It was a tough call, and they made a decision. Now, we've got to move on," Vickers said. "As a team, we earned the respect of the competitors and the media. We can win races. As far as I'm concerned, we did win that race. I may not be holding the trophy, but as far as I'm concerned we won that race."