DOVER, Del. -- Now that Brian Vickers and A.J. Allmendinger are hanging out together more frequently on Sunday afternoons, it's time to take the Red Bull by the horns.

After going through a stretch of eight races where he failed to qualify, Allmendinger has now made five Nextel Cup events in a row, while Vickers has competed in four consecutive and nine of the last 11.

So what has changed? Confidence, which has come from a variety of factors.

For Vickers, it's been improving consistency with the Toyota chassis.

"We've been fortunate to be on a run where we're making races," Vickers said. "Same thing throughout the year. We've just got to work on being consistent. A lot of it has been the COT.

"That's been our Achilles heel. We're really good with the old car, we're OK with the COT on banked tracks and we're horrible with the COT on flat tracks. That's why a lot of our year has been like this."

For Allmendinger, it's getting more seat time.

"The biggest thing for me is running the Busch car," said Allmendinger, who has run the last three Busch Series races in Chip Ganassi Racing's No. 42 car. "The Ganassi guys at the Busch team, they've been giving me good cars, which gives me confidence to go out there and run up front and have good races.

"That in turn, allows me to come back here and have confidence in myself to tell the guys, 'This is what's wrong with the car and this is what I need to be better' instead of going, 'Well, I'm not really sure.' In return, that gives them the confidence to make the change. It's a spiraling effect that keeps getting better."

Allmendinger will start Sunday's Dodge Dealers 400 in 11th place, his best qualifying effort this season. Vickers will roll off 23rd.

The former open-wheel champion said the team is in the process of moving the bar, from just getting in the field to running near the front.

"Now, the biggest deal is we expect to make races," Allmendinger said. "You're happy but you're not surprised. We were just praying to make the race and now, we don't just want to make the race, we want to run better in them.

"We're not just happy to go back home on Monday and Tuesday and say, 'Well, we made it and that was our goal.' That's the biggest thing we need to look at for the last eight races. We want to make the races, but when we're in them, we need to be competitive. That's the biggest goal."

Both drivers are using the last nine races of this season as a stepping stone for 2008. Vickers, who at one point was well out of contention for a guaranteed starting spot, has an outside chance of reaching the top 35 by the end of the year.

"That's key. I thought I'd never say this, but if we could finish in the top 35 in points by the end of the season, I'll be pretty happy going into the offseason. That's definitely our goal and needs to be our goal."

For Allmendinger, it's more about maintaining momentum.

"This is all looking toward the first five races of next year," Allmendinger said. "We're going to be in the same situation. It's shown this year, if you can be in the top 35 after those five races, you've got a good chance of staying in, no matter what. Because there's so many good cars that knock each other in and out, nobody can break into that top 35."