Sixth-place start bittersweet for Vickers

FONTANA, Calif. -- More often than not on the emotionally exhausting Nextel Cup rookie roller-coaster, first-year drivers are elated by top-10 qualifying efforts.

But not Brian Vickers. Not today.

Having qualified fourth or better with two outside poles during a four-race Nextel Cup trial run last year, Vickers entered the year with lofty expectations.

	Vickers had the fastest car during Friday morning's early practice at Fontana. Credit: Autostock

That momentum carried over to this year -- his first full campaign in the No. 25 Chevy -- after he started third at Las Vegas and second at Atlanta. But until Friday, he hadn't qualified better than 13th since.

So when he unloaded with the fastest car during practice Friday morning at California Speedway, he was licking his chops, only to once again go hungry.

"I'm satisfied, sure. I'll be happy when I'm on the pole, though," said Vickers, who qualified sixth for Sunday's Auto Club 500. "We've come so close. We're so close to getting that pole, and I really want one.

"I know everybody does. My GMAC guys did an awesome job. I don't really know what happened, just lost the nose a little bit down in (Turns) 1 and 2."

Vickers' disappointment is obvious as he describes how the car tightened up on him in the first corner, effectively eliminating a shot at the pole.

"The car pushed on me quite a bit on me down there in Turn 1 and 2. I don't know if the front tires didn't have quite enough heat in them or what," Vickers said. "We went through some growing pains there at the beginning of practice. It took us a little while to get going, and once we did we ran out of tires.

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"We're only allotted so many tires, so it was hard to get a really good feel for what it was going to do. That got us a little bit. And to be honest, I thought it was going to be worse than that."

Hence, all is not lost for the 20-year old. (Which, by the way, makes him the youngest driver to ever start a race at California Speedway).

He and crew chief Peter Sospenzo tried some radical setups during a recent test at Kentucky Speedway, which he feels paid dividends in qualifying and will continue to be beneficial during the race Sunday.

"We're building chemistry with this team and for the last couple of weeks we've been doing really well," Vickers said. "We've had some awesome tests and I'm looking forward to the race here on Sunday. We're happy with it, but I definitely wanted that pole.

"We're still qualifying good, and did so again today, but you can't qualify second but so many times. You want to win (the pole). When the time's right, we'll get that pole."