Busch Series cliffhanger heads to Miami

Six drivers within 89 points of new leader Vickers

ROCKINGHAM, N.C. -- There seem to be three constants in NASCAR these days: rain Ryan Newman winning poles, and the Busch Series points leader changing every weekend.

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For the eighth time in the last nine races, the points lead changed. This time, it's Brian Vickers who will carry the Points Leader Jinx to the next race. Of course, the next race is also the last race, next Saturday's Ford 300 at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

Vickers took the lead on the strength of a late charge to sixth and the slip by last week's leader, Scott Riggs. Vickers takes a 22-point lead over David Green into Homestead.

Ron Hornaday is third, 39 points back, with Jason Keller 70 out of the lead in fourth, Riggs 85 back in fifth and Bobby Hamilton Jr. 89 behind in sixth.

Any of those six could win the Busch Series championship, but Vickers, Green and Hornaday have the inside track. Every other driver has been eliminated from contention.

Here's a driver-by-driver look at the six title contenders:

1. BRIAN VICKERS, 4,507 points

Vickers has said several times he only wants to be the points leader after Homestead and not before. Well, he's the leader before.

	Brian Vickers

"I am a superstitious guy, but everybody keeps telling me I don't need to be," Vickers said. "I'll try to break that this week. We'll go down there and do the best we can and try to stick to the simple goal: Stay out of trouble, keep this points lead."

He hasn't been able to do that the two other times he's lead the points. Vickers got the lead at Dover, but crashed and finished 32nd at Kansas Speedway, a 1.5-mile track. He got it again at Memphis, but crashed and finished 31st at Atlanta Motor Speedway, a 1.54-mile track.

Now he's going to another mile-and-a-half track, the reconfigured Homestead-Miami Speedway.

"This team's not going to complain about where we're at," Vickers said. "Things have been happening pretty weird here recently with the championship, with the leader of the points. By no means are we going to complain about leading the points going to Miami."

Vickers started from the pole and led six laps to get five bonus points, but his car started to push on the second set of tires, and Vickers faded outside the top 10. He rallied back but fought hard with teammate Kyle Busch in the closing laps before slipping by on the last lap.

"We're all racing for position," Vickers said. "He was running his own race. I think maybe we could've gotten a couple more of them if we could've gotten by him. He did help me out on the last lap, and those five points can go a long way at the end of the year.

"No, there wasn't any team orders, by no means. We do our own thing, and it's up to us as teammates to make that call."

2. DAVID GREEN, minus-22

Coming off a disastrous race at Phoenix, Green dodged misfortune by overcoming a costly green-flag pit stop to finish 10th.

	David Green

While trying to pass the lapped car of Ron Young, Green said the two cars touched and cut down the left rear tire on his No. 37 Pontiac.

"Misfortunate rules today," Green said. "Most of the lapped cars do a good job, and Ron Young normally does to. But he just drilled us in the left rear.

"As soon as he hit me, I knew the tire was down. The guys changed it on a green-flag stop. It was the worst possible situation."

But Green, who dropped back to 13th at that point, kept digging.

"We never gave up," Green said. "We were a lot better than a 10th-place car today."

Despite the troubles, Green was upbeat about his chances heading into the season finale.

"Second place is where I want to be," he said. "We've still got him in our sights."

3. RON HORNADAY, minus-39

	Ron Hornaday

Hornaday never was able to make a move in the points battle, struggling to stay on the lead lap all day. He finally lost a lap to the leaders and finished 17th.

"It was a long one," Hornaday said. "We kept making adjustments on the car and it didn't do anything to help it. It wasn't the day we wanted."

Hornaday said the No. 2 Chevrolet would try to regroup for Homestead.

"It's a shame," Hornaday said. "We've got a better team, a better car than that. We just missed on the adjustments."

4. JASON KELLER, minus-70

After a miserable Friday, Keller was philosophical about his championship chances after finishing 13th Saturday.

	Jason Keller

"We just did all we could do today, given the circumstances we faced and we battled as hard as we could battle," Keller said. "I have a hard time being excited about the way the whole weekend went, but that's the way it goes."

Keller said he tried to put Friday's fire and crash behind him. Starting 43rd in a backup car, he was into the top 20 by lap 60.

"Today's a different day," he said. "Everything we did yesterday went bad. It wasn't a spectacular day by any means."

Keller knows the team that makes the fewest mistakes has the inside track at the title.

"We've just got to get better," Keller said. "We can't make mistakes and we've made mistakes lately. It's an unknown next week with the new configuration and if we can get in there and run good, maybe it will all turn out for us."

5. SCOTT RIGGS, minus-85

Riggs is the latest driver to feel the Points Leader Jinx. Leading after finishing sixth at Phoenix, Riggs struggled at Rockingham before bouncing off the Turn 1 wall with 32 laps to go.

	Scott Riggs

Riggs' ppc Racing crew tried to fix the damage, but time ran out, leaving Riggs in 38th place.

"I don't know. I don't know if something broke or ... something," Riggs said. "I couldn't get the car whoa'd down. Don't know if it was brake-wise or tire-wise. We just put a set of tires on, so I don't think it was the tire. We were having a little bit of brake problems anyway.

"I hate it. We took a big hit in the points."

Riggs came in with a 17-point lead but is a longshot to win the championship

"Pretty down, pretty frustrated," Riggs said. "Hate it. Wish we could do something over and do it again. Just keep doing all I can do.

"No, it's not over yet. It's pretty ridiculous to be where we were, and in 10 races to be where we are now. It's tough for us."

6. BOBBY HAMILTON Jr., minus-89

Down by 125 points and starting 20th, Hamilton needed a big day to stay in the chase.

	Bobby Hamilton Jr.

That's exactly what happened, as Hamilton moved the No. 25 Ford into the top 10 within the first 10 laps of the race, led three laps and finished a strong third to move to within four points of fourth-place Scott Riggs.

"It's just the roll we've been on," Hamilton said. "Hat's off to my guys."

So are you thinking about the points heading into the finale at Homestead?

"I have no idea and I don't care to talk about it," he said. "And now you've got me talking about it.

"We're just trying to win all the races. It's as simple as that. We're going to go to Homestead with the idea of leading all the laps and winning the race."