 | | Brian Vickers is 19th in the Nextel Cup Series standings. Credit: Autostock |
May 10, 2006
02:52 PM EDT (18:52 GMT)
Brian Vickers heads to Darlington this week, a track where he has made history. Vickers is the track's youngest winner, having won a Busch Series event there at the tender age of 19. Q: How much time do you spend at the shop during the week? Do you help build the cars and other things? -- Several fans Vickers: At this level, I don't have to participate in building the race cars. Growing up, I always worked on my race cars, but now I leave that in the pIenty-capable hands of everyone at Hendrick Motorsports. Occasionally, I'll need to fit a new seat inside of the car or work to make some tweaks as they relate to the driver cockpit area, but not much more than that. Typically, I have to split my time between a variety of commitments and obligations these days. Unless we're heading into an off weekend, a test or a sponsor appearance, I'll travel directly back to North Carolina after each race. Mondays are supposed to be my "personal" day to catch up on my own things, but sometimes I still have other obligations -- like taping Inside Nextel Cup. The rest of the week is spent dividing my time and resources between Hendrick Motorsports, sponsor obligations, my staff and our offices at HMS and in Thomasville, NC and personal business." Q: You seem to run well at Talladega, so with that said, what is your opinion on them repaving the track? Do you think it could have some of the same results as Lowe's? -- 4thsteagle Vickers: Talladega is getting pretty rough and the pavement is breaking up and starting to crack. I think it was a good decision. The new pavement will affect the pavement in a minimal way, but I think it will affect the racing less than it would than Daytona. At Talladega, you're pretty much running wide open the entire race. The track is high-banked with slow transitions from the straightaways to the corners and the racing surface is very wide. Older pavement doesn't really slow you down on a long run as much there. Now Daytona, if they repaved Daytona, you'd see the racing change a lot for a few years until the pavement became worn. Q: Brian, before you knew that you wanted to drive race cars for a living, were there any other careers you were interested in pursuing? -- Mallory Vickers: Because I developed my passion for racing so early I didn't think too much about other careers. If I weren't racing, I would have gone to college and pursued a degree in business or engineering, then pursued a career in that respective field -- likely related to racing. Q: As a Cup regular, how do you feel about Cup drivers racing the Busch Series schedule, filling up almost half of the field every week? -- Curt Croze Vickers: It's great that Nextel Cup drivers can run in the Busch Series because I think as a driver, you can learn a lot from them. I know when I was in the Busch Series, I enjoyed the challenge of racing the Cup drivers and trying to learn from them and beat them. It's a delicate balance, but I do believe NASCAR is closely monitoring the situation. Q: Hey Brian, since you are from North Carolina, I was wondering which college team you pull for? Also, where would you have attended college if you weren't racing? -- tbyrd008 Vickers: Being a native of North Carolina, if I have to say I pull for one college over another it'd being UNC. I have friends that have attended school there and I've visited the campus on a couple of occasions. As far as what school I would have attended if I wasn't racing... Hmmm... I don't know. I'll have to come back to that one another time. | 
