Brian Vickers Diary: Ready for Richmond

I spent my off-weekend in the Bahamas, pretty much just laying around and doing nothing. Let me tell you, it was welcome rest. Now we're heading to Richmond this weekend, where I had a great test a couple weeks back.

BRIAN VICKERS  •  Driver Page  •  Diary: Ga-ga over Augusta  •  Diary: Cautions warranted  •  Diary: Slow cars a tough issue  •  Diary: Darlington. Finally.  •  Diary: Lovin' Atlanta  •  Diary: Learning so much from the Hendricks  •  Diary: First Daytona an experience to remember  •  Hangin' with Vickers on the set of TRL  •  Hendrick team not resting on laurels for '04

Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson, myself and Kyle Busch all went up there, and I felt like that by the end of the day we were all pretty close to each other. That track is unbelievable. The track is unbelievably fast, probably the smoothest track I've ever been on. I thought they did an excellent job paving it. We were real quick, so I was happy with the speeds.

The track's different. Smoother. And with the new drainage system they put under the track, I don't think we'll have the problem with it leaking like we used to.

It's going to take some time to make it a two-groove racetrack. They may surprise me, the track really may come around right away and have awesome racing. The racing's still going to be good, but will it be two-and-three-wide, right away? No. No new racetrack is going to be like that.

They did very well with (Homestead-) Miami (Speedway), but that's partly because of the progressive banking. I don't think they put that in at Richmond. During the test, the line was right on the bottom.

I learned some stuff. I wouldn't say there was anything in particular. We all worked well together and communicated great. We shared ideas and tried some new things from what we learned. At the end of the day we were all pretty fast.

For us, we were wearing the left front out for some reason. Not really sure why, but we were for whatever reason. Tire wear seems to be holding up really well. We're not running as soft a compound as we have been most of the year, for that very reason.

With new pavement they don't want to have people blowing tires. So I think we'll still be able to lean on them pretty hard. They didn't seem to fall off much at all, both because of the new pavement and because the tire's harder. The time fall-off during the racing that we've seen will be at a minimum this weekend at Richmond.

With the new pavement it'll be hard to pass. So qualifying will be big. Qualifying is always important, but it'll be very important at Richmond because it's going to be hard to pass and times aren't going to fall off.

	Vickers says it will be important to qualify his No. 25 Chevrolet well on Friday. Credit: Autostock

They did a great job up there, and I think it's a great venue. Some people say it's the perfect NASCAR track. I like it, but I wouldn't say it's the perfect venue. I don't think there is a perfect venue, because I like variety.

I think Richmond is a great track. It's great for fans, good for drivers, the IRL can race there, too; it's great competition, you can race hard but there's still speed in it, and you can bump and grind so it's good for our cars. I agree with all those things.

But if you had 10 of them across the country, it'd still be boring. That's the bottom line. The 1.5-mile racetracks have a different appeal to them. Their appeal is more speed-oriented. Sheer speed that you get out of these cars, that you can show the fans. We're talking 208 mph going into the corner.

Fans love that. Drivers love that. But the reason they're so fed up is because there's so many of them. If we raced at Richmond every weekend -- a three-quarter mile, mid-banked racetrack -- all the time, fans would be bored with it. I think it's a great racetrack for NASCAR, and we should use more similar tracks.

Maybe not exactly like Richmond. Maybe like Lakeland, Fla. That's a great racetrack. That shape, that design, that style is big enough to be fast, to put grandstands in and accommodate fans, but small enough to have good racing.

I think we need to maintain variety. We don't need to continue to build cookie-cutter mile-and-a-half tracks. There's a place for them, but there's a place for Martinsville, Bristol and Richmond, too. Variety is key, and keeps people interested.

After what I saw in the test, this weekend should keep people interested. That's for sure.