Catchfence

Who: Scott Speed (82 Red Bull Toyota), Brian Vickers (83 Red Bull Toyota)
What: Pep Boys Auto 500 (Sprint Cup)
When: Saturday-Sunday, Sept. 5-6, 2009
Where: Atlanta Motor Speedway, Hampton, Ga.

+ BV’S CHARGE ROLLS THROUGH THE ATL

While he won’t be trading four wheels for two anytime soon, No. 83 driver Brian Vickers spent the off weekend twisting his way around Miller Motorsports Park outside Salt Lake City. His girlfriend bought them a three-day pass for the Yamaha Riding School, where Vickers learned the ins and outs — and lefts and rights — of super bike racing.

I’m hooked,” Vickers said of the experience.

Vickers, however, has other matters to attend to — namely gaining the 39 points necessary to qualify for the Chase. And it all starts with Sunday night’s Pep Boys Auto 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway. After Atlanta is the Chase’s cutoff race Sept. 12 at Richmond.

““All we need to do is keep doing what we’ve been doing,” said Vickers, who’s coming off a 12th-place finish Aug. 22 at Bristol, which came off Red Bull Racing Team’s first Sprint Cup victory a week earlier at Michigan.”

““We accomplished our goal of reaching victory lane. We did that, and it was great … great for the whole team, Toyota and everybody at Red Bull Racing Team. Now we just need to make the Chase, and we’re capable of doing it. The goal has always been the Chase.””

Vickers, who leads the series in poles with six, owns an average finish of 7.0 over the past seven races. In that stretch, he’s totaled the most points of any Sprint Cup driver — Vickers with 1,054; Tony Stewart with 1,040 — and has gained 158 points on the top 12 while charging from 17th to 14th in the standings.

The 25-year-old nearly broke into victory lane in March at Atlanta. His No. 83 Red Bull Toyota had Kurt Busch in its sights in the closing laps, but an untimely caution waved with four laps to go. On aging rubber and low on fuel, Vickers came into the pits in second and left in sixth. He ended up fifth.

Vickers has one outside pole (March 2004) at the 1.54-mile track to go along with one top five and five top 10s in 12 starts.

““I think our chances are great at making the Chase,” Vickers said. “I think we’re capable of it — as much or more capable of it than anybody that has an opportunity to make the Chase as of right now. That doesn’t mean that we will, and we’ve still got a lot of hard work ahead of us. There are no guarantees in this sport.”

The tide can turn in a matter of seconds.”

+ FUN’S OVER AS CAREER COMES CALLING

No. 82 driver Scott Speed and his new bride Amanda finally got to celebrate their wedding like true newlyweds. They were married July 18 and had to wait until the next gap in the Sprint Cup schedule to take a frantic, fast-paced honeymoon in Saint Lucia.

““We stayed four days there and by day two we felt like we had done everything we could on the island,” Speed said. “We figured we would just lay out and relax, even though I don’t know how to really do that. We are so used to going at a fast pace that we didn’t know how to do nothing at all. It was a different but nice feeling.””

But for Speed and the No. 82 team, it’s back to business this weekend at highspeed, multi-groove Atlanta Motor Speedway.

““We ran well in Chicago and in Michigan,” Speed said. “Atlanta is somewhere between these two. We have good momentum coming off of the off weekend and a solid run in Bristol. Hopefully, we can continue to learn and get better.””

Speed’s 15th-place effort in the Bristol night race was the best non-restrictor plate finish of his career. He ran in the top 20 for much of the race, got his second lap back under a late yellow flag and gained 45 points on the top 35. The No. 82 remained 36th in the car owner standings and has 12 races to pick up 115 points.

““We’d like to get into the top 35 and Brian into the Chase, which is completely achievable,” Speed said. “We are focused on running in the top 20 for the rest of the year. Going back to some of these places a second or third time really helps and makes a difference on how we attack the weekend.””

The 26-year-old’s first NASCAR start came at Atlanta, where he qualified 28th and finished 27th in the March 2008 Camping World Truck race. He greatly improved in Atlanta’s fall truck race that same year, starting 11th and finishing fifth.

He has two Sprint Cup starts there, with finishes of 34th and 35th.

+ FINALLY … A CHANCE TO GET DIRTY

Brian Vickers will get the chance to prove his dirt skills Sept. 9 at one of America’s finest half-mile tracks — Eldora Speedway in western Ohio. He’ll compete in the Prelude to the Dream, which recently has become an all-star race for NASCAR drivers that just want to drive a late model for a good cause in the middle of the week.

He’ll race alongside the likes of track owner Tony Stewart, Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson, Ryan Newman, Kevin Harvick, Kasey Kahne, Kyle Busch, Carl Edwards, Denny Hamlin, Matt Kenseth and Clint Bowyer, among others.

Vickers will drive the Kevin Rumley-prepared and Red Bull-branded late model. The Prelude, which was rained out in June, is in advance to the one of late-model racing’s premier events — the annual Dream. NASCAR drivers will race in the fifth annual Prelude to help America’s fighting men and women and their families.

““It’s certainly going to be an interesting event,” said Vickers, who earlier this season tested on dirt. “”It’’ll be competitive, I’m sure, but it’s all for a good cause. We expect to do well and have fun at the same time.

“”I haven’t raced on dirt since go-karts. I’ve never raced a big car on dirt. With the caliber of drivers that are going to be out there at Eldora, I expect it to be just as competitive as a Cup race.”

- Red Bull Racing Team, Press Release