Monday
Scott Speed, Brian Vickers Post-TUMS Fast Relief 500 NSCS Race Recaps
Press Release
What: Tums Fast Relief 500 (Sprint Cup)
When: Sunday, Oct. 25, 2009
Where: Martinsville Speedway, Martinsville, Va.
Results: Scott Speed (start 18, finish 31); Brian Vickers (start 24, finish 11)
+ NOT GREAT, BUT FINALLY NOT BAD
After a painful five-week stretch marred by mechanical failures, poor performance and plain old bad luck, Brian Vickers walks away from Martinsville Speedway with an 11th-place finish — head down, charging forward and no chance he’s looking back.
“We had a good car and overcame a bad starting position early on,” Vickers said after Sunday’s Tums Fast Relief 500. “It’s no secret that it’s not gone well for us lately in the Chase, and 11th at a tough place like Martinsville is a good start to getting back on track. We could’ve run better and finished better, but we’ll take it. A good effort by the whole Red Bull team all weekend.”
Vickers’ No. 83 Red Bull Toyota started 24th and began flirting with the top five only 125 laps in. He hung around the top 10 throughout the 500 laps run on a sunny southern Virginia afternoon, even cracking the top five with 50 laps to go. But after an average finish of 23.3 in the first five Chase races, 11th at the checkered flag will do.
Entering one of Vickers’ better tracks and the site of his first Sprint Cup victory in October 2006 — 2.66-mile Talladega Superspeedway — BV ranks 12th in the standings and is entering the realm of needing a prayer to get back into the top 10. He’s 91 points behind 11th-place Kasey Kahne and 117 behind Carl Edwards i10th.
“For us, the championship has been lost for a while now,” Vickers said. “The rest of the year is about having some fun, winning as many races as we can and finishing as high in points as we possibly can. We have some tracks that we’ve performed well at in the past … Talladega and Texas for starters. We’ll go in there with nothing but the attitude of trying to win the race.”
In his third trip to .526-mile Martinsville, Scott Speed started 18th and quickly settled in the top 25. Adjustments to help a tight-handling car and green-flag pit strategy pushed Speed to as high as fourth at one point, and the rookie restarted 12th when the green flag wave a lap 488 restart.
Speed was running 15th and well on his way to a strong showing at NASCAR’s shortest track, but with six laps to go he entered turn one a little hot and the rear end came around. He smacked the outside wall, and the damage to the No. 82 Red Bull Toyota was too much to repair in a matter of minutes.
He retired in 31st.
The No. 82 remained 36th in the car owner standings — 118 points out of the top 35 with four races to go.
+ UP NEXT
Talladega 500, Sunday, Nov. 1, Talladega Superspeedway
- Toyota Motorsports, Press Release
Article Tags: Brian Vickers, Martinsville Speedway, NASCAR, NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, NSCS, Red Bull Racing Team, Scott Speed, Toyota Motorsports, TUMS Fast Relief 500
