 | | Brian Vickers' pit crew performed admirably at Charlotte despite little experience in pressure-packed situations in 2005. Credit: Rusty Jarrett/Getty Images |
By Ryan Smithson, NASCAR.COM
May 30, 2005
12:42 PM EDT (16:42 GMT)
Pit Story of the Race Brian Vickers is has already been grilled, marinated, drawn and quartered for getting into Bill Elliott, but he probably wouldn't have been in that situation if not for bad luck. Vickers was the leader when he was trapped on the tail end of the lead lap by Kasey Kahne's blown tire. Vickers was making a green-flag stop at the time and seemed poised to score his first Nextel Cup win. But the caution came out just after Vickers' crew completed his stop -- a 14.3-second stop at that -- and Vickers suddenly found himself in heavy traffic. His patience wore thin, and he got into the back of Bill Elliott on the frontstretch, touching off a multi-car crash. Jeff Gordon, whose team had just given him a 13.5 second green-flag stop, was one of the cars involved. "We had a car to win the race," said Vickers. "I got frustrated when the caution came out and put us in the back." Jimmie Johnson was another of the cars that had to start on the tail end of the lead lap, and with several cautions over the final 40 laps, it didn't take him long to work his way back to the front. "When Joe [Nemechek] spun [on Lap 391], that's when it dawned on me that, man, I have a shot at really winning this race," Johnson said. "Because, 20-30 laps before that, we were caught pitting and then we were a lap down." Marlin miffed at speeding penalty  |  | | Sterling Marlin wound up 39th in the Coca-Cola 600. Credit: Rusty Jarrett/Getty Images |
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On Lap 200, Sterling Marlin went down pit road to avoid the spinning Dodge of Scott Wimmer, but NASCAR buzzed him for speeding coming down pit road. "I'm not sure about the pit road deal. You see trucks going down pit road (at) 180," Marlin said. "They never penalized anybody, but they penalized us for missing the wreck. "It was either get in the oil or go down pit road, so I went down pit road and got penalized. That's what put us back there. A lot of racing is common sense, but sometimes it doesn't come into effect." Quotable "Tonight was a very mentally draining track for myself, and I know for Chad that with all the cautions, to do with strategy and whether to pit, not pit. And we only had 22,000 cautions tonight."
-- Jimmie Johnson, who was nearly a lap down with less than 50 to go |  | ALSO | |
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"I've seen the fast car out there run 20th when he was in the 20th spot and if they do their pit strategy right, they could run up front. It's just really tough to get anything done, especially in four and five-lap runs."
-- Matt Kenseth "Every time we came on pit road they made adjustments and made the car faster. Then we got really fortunate with that pit strategy and ended up leading."
-- Carl Edwards, who found himself in the lead when Kasey Kahne's tire blew | 
