Vickers, Red Bull come of age with first Chase berth

RICHMOND, Va. -- Shortly after Brian Vickers had raced his way into the Chase for the Sprint Cup in Saturday night's Chevy Rock & Roll 400 at Richmond International Raceway, Rick Hendrick briefly interrupted media interviews with Vickers to offer a congratulatory word followed by a hearty embrace.

Hendrick represented Vickers' past -- but at one time, not so long ago, the owner of Hendrick Motorsports seemed to be Vickers' future as well.

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Brian Vickers comments on outracing Kyle Busch for the 12th position in the Chase.

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Video Moment

Brian Vickers gets the track position he needs late in the race to get into the Chase.

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Edge to Vickers

After battling Kyle Busch all night for the final Chase spot, Brian Vickers holds his position.

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That all changed when Vickers elected to drive a Toyota for Red Bull Racing, an upstart Cup team, in 2007. But it didn't change for good until this season, when Vickers' No. 83 team blossomed during the second half of the 26-race regular season until it proved it can be one of the best in the business -- solidifying a future plan that now definitely includes Vickers.

The driver came to Richmond last weekend sitting just outside of the top 12 that would qualify for the Chase, needing to race his way in. Others sitting around him in the point standings were just as desperate, including his new arch rival, Kyle Busch, who entered Saturday's race one spot behind Vickers.

They began the race in 13th and 14th, respectively. But with Matt Kenseth dropping like a rock and out of sight, out of mind, almost as soon as the race started, the Vickers-Busch battle soon became the best sub-plot of the night.

In the end, Vickers did what he had to do to hold off a furious charge by Busch -- finishing seventh in the race to Busch's fifth to carve out an eight-point edge in the Chase standings. It might as well have been 800.

The bottom line is that Vickers and Red Bull are in the 10-race Chase. Busch isn't.

And now that he's in, get this: Vickers insists he can win it, and he is quick to tell you why.

The numbers

First off, let's get it straight that Vickers isn't the only one in the Chase who thinks he can win it. In fact, all 12 drivers who qualified for it have professed the same belief, at least publicly -- and each has his own reasons.

But for Vickers and Red Bull to even be in this position is remarkable. In 2007, when they started out, they couldn't even qualify for all of the races. Vickers made only 23 and wondered if leaving Hendrick Motorsports for Red Bull was the mistake of his young life.

Last year they made strides as a team, winning a pole but no races and finishing 19th in points. But this year, the mandate from the outset was clear, according to Vickers, Red Bull general manager Jay Frye and crew chief Ryan Pemberton.

"We said we wanted to win a pole, and we've won six; we said we wanted to win a race and we won at Michigan; and we said we wanted to make the Chase. Now we've done that, too," Vickers said.

With all the lofty preseason goals already checked off the to-do list, what's left? Well, winning a championship, of course.

Can they do it? Frye figures why not? He pointed out that during the last 10 races of the regular season, his No. 83 pride and joy ran about as well as anyone else and better than most who are in the Chase. Only Saturday's race winner, Denny Hamlin, and regular-season points leader Tony Stewart registered more points over that stretch -- and not by much.

Ten speed

Most points / past 10 races

Pos.	Driver	Pts.	Wins	Seed*
1.	D. Hamlin	1,482	2	4
2.	T. Stewart	1,442	1	2
3.	B. Vickers	1,409	1	8
4.	K. Kahne	1,366	2	5
5.	M. Martin	1,365	1	1
6.	J. Gordon	1,347	0	6
7.	J. Montoya	1,334	0	11
8.	J. Johnson	1,327	1	3
9.	G. Biffle	1,257	0	12
10.	Ku. Busch	1,238	0	7
11.	C. Edwards	1,229	0	9
12.	R. Newman	1,226	0	10

* To begin Chase

"This team is rolling," Frye said. "If we can keep doing what we've been doing over these last 10 weeks, absolutely we can win the championship.

"We've got to re-set our goals with 10 to go. But that's OK. That's nice. Does this team have the ability to win the championship? Yes."

And the GM doesn't mean just this season, either.

"Brian Vickers is a great, great, young race car driver," said Frye, who recently re-signed the 25-year-old Vickers to a multiyear contract extension. "He has a huge future ahead of him with this team. This is a driver and a team that is going to have to be reckoned with over the next several years."

The plan

So what's the plan going into the Chase, which begins next weekend in New Hampshire?

Well, Vickers' immediate plans involved visiting the U.S. Open tennis tournament Sunday. "We'll go watch some good tennis, but I'll probably have a hangover. We're going to celebrate this Red Bull-style and have a good time [Saturday] night," Vickers promised shortly after the race ended.

It sounded like a solid plan.

So did the plan of Pemberton, who was all smiles Saturday as he thought back to Vickers getting wrecked and finishing 40th in the season-opening Daytona 500 way back in February. The following week began a slow march toward recovery that wasn't complete until last Saturday night.

In fact, Vickers spent virtually the entire season outside the top 12 in points. He inched inside only one week -- he was 11th after the fourth race of the season in Atlanta -- until finishing with the flourish at Richmond.

Asked what he planned to tell the No. 83 team members heading into the Chase, Pemberton said it would remain pretty much business as usual.

"I don't think we'll say much at all," Pemberton said. "As far as the immediate team, the guys you see on a weekly basis, they're all veteran guys. They'll know what to do. We didn't talk about it coming into this week here. We just prepared the car.

"I didn't want to take people out of their rhythm and say, 'Oooo, this is the Chase we're racing for right here.' Shame on us if we're going to do something better or different. If we needed to be doing something better or different, then we should have been doing it all year."

In their first year together as crew chief and driver, they eventually started clicking. Now they aren't only on the same page; they're collaborating on writing one of the best stories of the season.

"And remember," said Frye, "we're only 26 races into Brian and Ryan."

As Hendrick hugged Vickers and turned away Saturday night, the past went, too. The future for the driver of the No. 83 Toyota and his team looms in a different direction and has never looked brighter.

"We don't have to have a meeting right now to figure out what our new goal is," said Pemberton, who couldn't stop smiling.

The opinions expressed are those solely of the writer.