 | | Jeff Gordon was irritated that teammate Brian Vickers raced him hard at Loudon. Credit: Autostock |
By David Newton, NASCAR.COM
September 23, 2006
04:25 PM EDT (20:25 GMT)
DOVER, Del. -- The voice of crew chief Lance McGrew came over Brian Vickers' in-car radio as he raced Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jeff Gordon for a top three position late in last weekend's Nextel Cup race at New Hampshire. "Pull over and let him pass or drive away from him,'' McGrew said. Vickers let Gordon go. But for a handful of laps he raced Gordon hard, way too hard for the four-time champion. "I can't explain it,'' said Gordon, who will start on the pole in Sunday's race at Dover International Speedway. "It's my teammate, but he's not my teammate. He's moving on next year [to Team Red Bull]. "He wants to win races, he wants to drive hard, and I can't blame him for wanting to do that.'' Chase drivers dealing with non-Chase drivers are becoming an ever increasing concern. Defending Cup champion Tony Stewart, out of the Chase for the first time in its three-year existence, said he was nervous racing around Chase drivers at New Hampshire. He went so far as to suggest that non-Chase drivers should compete in the first 200 laps and the Chase drivers in the next 200. The dichotomy between these two groups could be greater on Sunday than ever with seven of the top 10 qualifiers and 13 of the top 17 outside of NASCAR's playoff system. That means most of the Chase field will have to work its way through those drivers to get to the front. "You've got to be respectful of their situation and understand they're racing for a championship,'' Vickers said. "At the same time they've got to understand you're out there racing to win. "Anybody in the Chase that feels the rest of the field needs to get out of the way needs to think again. If that was the case, then they should have a race for the 10 cars in the Chase and a race for the rest.'' Gordon, having missed the Chase a year ago, understands. He also knows how valuable every point can be, having lost the 2004 title by 16 points to Kurt Busch. "There in the closing laps that could have been crucial, that could have cost us some time,'' he said of his battle with Vickers. "That did cost us time. "He wants it bad and he's driving hard. That was just a little bit of a lapse in judgment, but it was also him getting back at me because I raced him hard earlier in the race.'' Vickers said he hasn't spoken to Gordon about the incident, but he has spoken to McGrew. "I felt like it did not need to be said on the radio,'' he said. "We talked about whose responsibility it is to drive the car.'' Vickers, however, agrees with Stewart that racing against Chase drivers can be dicey. "Maybe nervous is the word and maybe it's not,'' he said. "When you're around a Chase guy you would feel really bad if you made a mistake and wrecked them. '' Elliott Sadler, who was in the Chase in 2004, said most non-Chase drivers are aware of where the Chase drivers are. "It's in the back of your mind that you don't want to do anything stupid around those guys,'' he said. "They're trying to run for a championship. You leave it up to them to race it out among themselves.'' Jimmie Johnson has noticed that non-Chase drivers tend to give Chase drivers more room. "The last thing they want to do is be involved with something that affects the championship and the outcome of things,'' he said. That doesn't mean it won't happen, even between teammates. "I'm gonna race the same way I've always raced,'' Vickers said. "If they show me respect, I'll show them respect. That's the way I've been since I first raced a go-kart.'' | 
