Catchfence

Who: Scott Speed (82 Red Bull Toyota), Brian Vickers (83 Red Bull Toyota)
What: Dickies 500 (Sprint Cup)
When: Sunday, Nov. 8, 2009
Where: Texas Motor Speedway, Fort Worth, Texas
Results: Scott Speed (start 31, finish 18); Brian Vickers (start 15, finish 26)

+ RED BULLS OFF PACE IN TEXAS

Only six cars finished on the lead lap Sunday at Texas Motor Speedway. Scott Speed wasn’t driving one of them, and neither was teammate Brian Vickers.

Speed snuck into the top 20 in the Dickies 500 by virtue of fuel mileage. As several cars ran dry in the closing laps, Speed’s No. 82 Red Bull Toyota kept going and ended up 18th at the checkered flag.

It was the rookie’s best showing since he finished 15th on Aug. 22 at Bristol, and his No. 82 remained 36th in the car owner standings — 117 points out of the top 35 with two races to go.

“I think we would have run on the lead lap all day. We were fast enough to,” Speed said. “We had a great car all race. There was one run where we were way off, but we fixed it and there at the end we were as fast as the leaders, I mean really holding our own. It’s great for all of us. It gives us more momentum and we’re figuring it out and reassuring us that yeah, we are getting it and we can go fast.”

After 11th- and 13th-place finishes in the previous two races, Vickers’ bad luck in the Chase surfaced again. He hung on to a loose No. 83 and finished 26th, as no series of adjustments seemed to help as Vickers steadily slipped back in traffic
after starting 15th.

“When I put rear brake into the car, it started acting like it was supposed to. I can’t explain it,” Vickers reported halfway through the 500-mile race. “We are still really loose in. The biggest problem by far is entry.”

Vickers radioed the car to be the “best it has been” during the last run of the day – which was unfortunately too little, too late.

He still ranks 12th in the Chase — 80 points behind 11th-place Carl Edwards and 121 behind Kasey Kahne in 10th.

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- Toyota Motorsports