Checker Auto Parts 500 - Brian Vickers Notes

FIRST PHOENIX CUP START FOR VICKERS: Sunday's Checker Auto Parts 500 will mark Brian Vickers' first-ever Winston Cup start at PIR. The 20-year-old, who finished 11th during last year's NASCAR Busch Series race at the Avondale, Ariz.-based track, will also compete in Saturday's Bashas' Supermarkets 200.

VICKERS HOLDS HIS OWN: With a fourth-place effort in time trials at Atlanta Motor Speedway, Vickers has managed to earn top-20 starting positions in each of his first two Winston Cup races. The Thomasville, N.C., native qualified 20th for his Oct. 11 series debut at Lowe's Motor Speedway, finishing 33rd.

VICKERS TEAMING WITH BUGS AT PHOENIX: Vickers and Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jeff Gordon will team up with Looney Tunes characters this weekend at Phoenix in preparation for the release of Warner Brother's movie "The Looney Tunes: Back In Action." Vickers' No. 25 UAW-Delphi Chevrolet will sport a special paint scheme featuring Bugs Bunny.

TESTING UPDATE: Vickers and Team 25 spent two days last week at Phoenix testing a pair of Hendrick Motorsports cars and settled on HMS Chassis No. 2551 for Sunday's 312-miler. The team then spent Monday and Tuesday of this week testing Chassis No. 2540 at North Carolina Speedway for the Nov. 9 Winston Cup race.

GORDON TIES IT UP: With Gordon's triumph at Atlanta on Monday, Hendrick Motorsports has now tied Penske Racing for the most Winston Cup wins this season. Ryan Newman has each of Penske's eight victories, while all four of Hendrick's full-time teams have won at least once. Since 1984, Hendrick Motorsports has earned 117 Winston Cup wins.

DELPHI FAST FACT: Delphi is developing systems with mobile networking technology that can provide an Internet connection 20 times faster than a dialup modem, approximately the speed of the fastest cable modems.

BRIAN VICKERS, DRIVER OF THE NO. 25 UAW-DELPHI CHEVROLET: (HAVE YOU EXPERIENCED ANY CHALLENGES SO FAR IN COMPETING IN BOTH THE BUSCH SERIES AND WINSTON CUP SERIES?) "Time management has been the biggest issue for me in the two races I've run. I'm used to having a little more time to de-brief with my crew after a practice session. Jumping in and out of the cars hasn't hurt us at all, in my opinion. Look at Atlanta -- we qualified fifth in the Busch car and fourth in the Cup car, within hours of one another."

VICKERS: (ARE YOU DISAPPOINTED WITH YOUR FINISHES IN THE NO. 25 CAR SO FAR?) "Not really. Do I think we had a better car than our finish at Atlanta? Yes. These last four races this season are all about getting seat time and working with my crew in preparation for next season. That's all. If it were 2004, I'd be a little more concerned. My main focus is still trying to win a Busch Series championship."

VICKERS: (ON TESTING AT PHOENIX.) "It was a good two days for us and most of our time was spent running in race trim. Jeff (Gordon) and his team tested out there with us, too, and it was very helpful having him there to discuss how our cars were driving and the lines each of us we were running on the track. We even swapped cars one day and made some laps."

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