Thursday

Scott Speed & Brian Vickers, 2010 Food City 500 NSCS Race Previews

NSCS Red Bull Racing Teams No. 82 & No. 83

+ FOUR DOWN, 32 TO GO

We paused and reflected during the off week. Let’s reset the first 11 percent of the Sprint Cup Series season:

82 . SCOTT SPEED DURING DOWN TIME, I …: Took a road trip to the NHRA Gatornationals in Florida. Golfed. Visited the hair salon for a black dye job with blue chunks. Made a guest judge appearance at the Red Bull 3Style competition in Charlotte.

VITAL SIGNS: Tied for 11th in points. He’s never been higher, sits 206 points ahead of 35th place in the car owner standings and owns 226 more points than at this stage one year ago.

BIG MOMENT: A strong and consistent start to his second Sprint Cup season. Speed has finishes of 19th, 11th, 22nd and 10th. He’s led 19 laps — matching his total from all of last year — and the top 10 at Atlanta is the best finish of his career at a track that doesn’t require restrictor plates.

BAD MOMENT: A 22nd-place finish at Las Vegas. “If our bad days are 22nd, then we’re doing something good,” he said. Speed ended up one lap down — the only lap he’s failed to complete.

GRIP’S HIS THING: Speed’s taken quite a liking to Bristol’s concrete high banks. The first time he ever saw the .533-mile track he won the pole and finished third in the 2008 Camping World Truck race. In round two, he finished eighth in the Nationwide race. Rounds three and four came in Sprint Cup, where he’s qualified 11th and third with a best finish of 15th in October 2009.

THE HELL WITH THE HILL: The No. 82 is one race away from a guaranteed spot in the top 35, meaning the team can have stress-free qualifying days beginning with the March 28 race at Martinsville. And if all goes as planned, never again will the No. 82 crew have to make the uphill trek to Bristol’s overflow lot for team transporters.

83 . BRIAN VICKERS DURING DOWN TIME, I …: Went skiing with some friends in Aspen and Jackson Hole. Wondered why some people prefer to exercise in the gym rather than outdoors.

VITAL SIGNS: Ranked 16th in points. But the 2009 Chase participant is only 16 points out of the top 12.

BIG MOMENT: Lap 332 at Atlanta. A multi-car wreck unfolded just ahead of Vickers during an attempt at a green-white-checkered finish. He couldn’t see anything through the smoke and described it as “straight up Days of Thunder,” but spotter Chris Lambert helped guide him through. What could have been disastrous turned into a seventh-place finish — Vickers’ first top 10 of the season. www.redbullracingusa.com

BAD MOMENT: A 31st-place finish at Las Vegas. BV described the race as perhaps the No. 83 team’s worst in three-plus years.

BULLRING BITES BACK: Bristol has never been particularly kind to Vickers. In 11 starts, he has six finishes of 20th or better. The other five times, he’s ended up 29th or worse. Bristol is one of five tracks on the Sprint Cup schedule where Vickers has failed to record a top 10 (Texas, Darlington, Infineon and Homestead).

CENTURY MARK: Vickers will make his 100th start in a Red Bull Toyota on Sunday. BV and Red Bull Racing Team were part of Toyota’s inaugural driver/team lineup in 2007. Since then, Vickers has earned one win (Michigan, August 2009), eight top-five finishes, 24 top 10s and seven poles. He was also the first driver in Toyota’s freshman class to earn a spot in the Chase.

+ TO THE CAR GOES THE SPOILER

Brian Vickers was one of three drivers to record a fast lap above 200 mph during Tuesday’s spoiler test at Talladega Superspeedway, though reports say speeds sometimes eclipsed 210 mph. His lap of 200.163 mph in the afternoon drafting session was third best, while teammate Scott Speed — driving a second No. 83 — was 20th of 25 cars (197.602).

During the test, NASCAR decreased the size of restrictor plates and later asked teams to shave down the traditional spoiler, which is expected to replace the rear wing for the March 26-28 weekend at Martinsville.

“The test went well. We tried several different packages,” Vickers said. “The racing was great … different, but great. I commend NASCAR for trying new things. I feel like the package we ended with was better than the package we started with.

“We plan to see a great race (in April) — a very strategic race — and a lot of three- and four-wide racing. It will definitely make for a great race from the fans’ perspective.”

+ SPEAKING OF TESTING …

Red Bull Racing Team development driver Cole Whitt tested at Greenville- Pickens Speedway on Tuesday in preparation for the NASCAR K&N Series East opener March 27. Whitt, an 18-year-old from Alpine, Calif., drove the No. 84 Red Bull Toyota for 162 laps around the half-mile oval in the upstate of South Carolina.

“Our test went really well, and I’m pretty excited to go back to Greenville to actually race,” Whitt said. “We focused a lot yesterday on race setup and getting our car good for long runs. We have a little bit more work to do at the race shop, but we think it will really pay off on race day.”

Whitt’s only other stock car test took place March 1 at South Boston (Va.) Speedway — the second stop on the K&N East schedule.

“Cole has far exceeded our expectations each time he’s tested,” said RBRT’s Elton Sawyer. “Both the 2008 and 2009 K&N Pro Series East champions were also at the test, so we had a good baseline for comparison. For the Greenville race, we’ll need to work on getting the car a little bit better for long runs. That race will be all about tire management and being patient.”

+ CAN YOU FEEL THE SPEED?

A race at Bristol is as much about feel as it is sound, from the thunder of a 43-car herd on the track to the roar of the 160,000 fans seated above. Ashley Fiolek will rely on feel as she takes in Sunday’s Food City 500 with Red Bull Racing Team.

Ashley’s a 19-year-old Red Bull athlete and superstar motocross racer. And she’s been deaf since birth, but that hasn’t stopped her from achieving the ultimate in motocross.

Nicknamed “The Fastest Woman in Motocross,” Ashley won back-to-back WMA Pro national championships in 2008-09. She won her first X Games gold medal in women’s moto X super X in 2009 (right) and also received an ESPY nomination for “Best Female Action Sports Athlete.”

“Before a race, I can’t hear people talking smack to me or bothering me at the line,” she once told ESPN The Magazine. “If somebody is coming up behind me, I don’t have the pressure of knowing they’re there. But if I’m coming up on someone, they have that pressure.”

Ashley, who reads lips quite well, often relies on her mother, Roni, to translate. Ashley will take a pace car ride Sunday morning and follow drivers Brian Vickers and Scott Speed through their race day routines. She’ll watch the Food City 500 from atop the Red Bull Racing Team pit boxes.

- Red Bull Racing Team, Press Release