Bass Pro Shops MBNA 500 - Brian Vickers Notes

VICKERS IN THE 25 THIS WEEKEND: This weekend at Atlanta, Brian Vickers will pilot the No. 25 UAW-Delphi Chevrolet for the first time. Vickers made his first NASCAR Winston Cup Series appearance at Lowe's Motor Speedway on Oct. 11, starting 20th and finishing 33rd while driving the No. 60 Chevy of Hendrick Motorsports.

TOP-FIVE STREAK FOR TEAM 25: In the last three fall races at Atlanta Motor Speedway, the No. 25 UAW-Delphi team has earned one win and a trio of top-five finishes while leading 233 laps combined. Only two other teams -- the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports team and the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing team -- have come close to matching Team 25's performance during that span, posting top-10 finishes at the 1.54-mile oval in the last three fall races.

UAW-DELPHI TO USE NO. 2547: Team 25 will race Hendrick Motorsports Chassis No. 2547 at Atlanta this weekend. The team raced this same car earlier this season at Darlington (S.C.) Raceway, Michigan International Speedway, California Speedway and Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

PACING THE FIELD: Of the 500 laps run at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway on Sunday, Hendrick Motorsports led 372 of them. Race-winner Jeff Gordon was out front for 313 circuits, while Labonte (40) and Joe Nemechek (19) also led. Although Jimmie Johnson never took the point in the fourth Hendrick entry, he did post a runner-up finish -- his 10th top-five of the season.

COMING UP: Vickers will run every remaining Winston Cup and Busch Series event on the NASCAR schedule this season. He presently leads the Busch Series championship standings by 23 points over David Green.

VICKERS TESTS PHOENIX: Vickers spent Tuesday and Wednesday of this week testing at Phoenix International Raceway in preparation for the Nov. 2 Winston Cup race at the one-mile oval.

DELPHI FAST FACT: Delphi has put audio systems in more than 250,000,000 vehicles.

BRIAN VICKERS, DRIVER OF THE NO. 25 UAW-DELPHI CHEVROLET: (ON COMPETING IN HIS SECOND WINSTON CUP RACE.) "I'm looking forward to it. This will be my first opportunity to work on a race weekend with the guys on the No. 25 team. It's a great chance for us to begin the process of developing the lines of communication that are so important if you want to be successful at this level."

VICKERS: (WILL RUNNING WINSTON CUP AFFECT YOU AS YOU COMPETE FOR THE BUSCH SERIES CHAMPIONSHIP?) "If anything, I think running both races will help me because I'm guaranteed double the track time at every race track from here on out. There are very few downsides to getting as much seat time as possible during these last four events. I'm just fortunate to have been given this opportunity and hope to make the best of it."

VICKERS: (ON ATLANTA.) "Drivers like Atlanta because it's a multi-groove race track. If your car isn't working on the bottom (of the track), you can try your hand in the middle groove or even up high against the wall. For me, the best part about running there is the speed. I really like the fast, on-the-edge-type tracks where you can almost hold it wide open all the way around."

VICKERS: (ON FINISHING 33RD IN HIS WINSTON CUP DEBUT.) "It wasn't what I expected. I hate to make excuses, but having practice cancelled because of the rain didn't help us very much. We just needed to be able to run more practice laps in race trim. Looking back, I know things could have been a lot worse. We finished the race without damaging the car and learned a great deal. I guess that's really what it's all about at this point for me."

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