Vickers looking ahead, but with an eye out for Busch (cont'd)

Afterward, as Vickers headed down pit road, Busch turned his car into Vickers' machine and then jumped out, accusing Vickers of being "an idiot" for racing him so hard and allowing Keselowski to pass them both for the win. Vickers took offense and said he "didn't realize it was the Kyle Busch show."

Vickers made it clear Friday at Bristol that he hasn't forgotten the incident.

Staying at Red Bull

Win on Sunday ... sign on Tuesday. Red Bull Racing Team has signed Brian Vickers to a multiyear contract extension.

• More

"I'm not still mad about it," Vickers said. "Like I said after the race, definitely I put it in the memory bank for the next go-around. I don't know if you want to call it Strike One or Strike Two, but either way he's out of strikes.

"Like I said last week, in a lot of ways I feel sorry for him. I hate that he lives in such an angry place. To be mad about something so small, it must be miserable to live like that. That's just not the way I live my life."

Vickers even questioned Busch's upbringing.

"I'm very blessed to have great parents that raised me to be a very different person. I'm in a great position there and I'm very lucky that way, that I was raised differently," Vickers said. "I'm fine with whatever happens moving forward. The ball is in his court.

"I'm willing to race him hard and clean and move on down the road -- and if he's not willing to do that, then I'm willing to take whatever path he chooses. I'm going to race him the way he races me. He knows that and he's been aware of that for a very long time. That's not going to change."

Busch did not immediately respond to Vickers' comments. One of the driver's media representatives said Busch may do so later.

Vickers, meanwhile, wanted to clarify that he did not mean to imply that going for a win in a Nationwide Series race, or any other race, is necessarily "a small thing." He said he just thought Busch should have handled himself more professionally after last Saturday's event.

"Pitching a fit and throwing a tantrum after a race [is not the way to go]," Vickers said. "I wanted to win that race as bad or more than he did, but I handled it very differently.

"He was mad because I raced him. He was mad because he said that I should have let him go so that the 88 [car of Keselowksi], who didn't deserve to win, wouldn't have won. That's what he told me -- that the 88 didn't deserve to win and if I would've let him go and let him win, then the 88 wouldn't have. And frankly, I don't really care if Kyle Busch wins and I'm proud of the 88. Good for him. He snuck by both of us.

"It's my job to race for the win and that's what I want: to win the race. If I can't win, I don't really care who wins, to be honest with you. My concern is not [Kyle Busch]."

Asked to clarify what he meant when he said that Busch was "out of strikes," Vickers replied: "What do you think it means? I'm going to race him the way he races me, but he's out of rope."

Vickers, on the other hand, is full of hope after moving up to 13th in the point standings heading into Bristol. He is only 12 points out of 12th-place cutoff behind Mark Martin.

Despite never finishing better than 12th in 10 career Cup starts at the half-mile short track, Vickers said he enters this weekend full of confidence. Plus, he now has the new contract in hand.

Vickers admitted he was forced during months of negotiations to entertain the possibility of driving for another organization. But he said he never really wanted to leave and start over again somewhere else.

"It would have been very difficult and it was not something I wanted to do," Vickers said. "There would have been a lot of things I would have had to give up. ... I wanted to be where I am. I wanted to be at Red Bull."

Frye added: "Brian is a great guy who has a huge future. This team's got a huge future, I believe, and we're really excited about it."