Aaron’s 499 - Brian Vickers Notes

POLE POSITIONING: Brian Vickers and Peter Sospenzo are shooting for a pole position at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway this week. Sospenzo, crew chief of the No. 25 GMAC Financial Services Chevrolets, earned his first career pole in April 2000 while calling the shots for Jeremy Mayfield and Penske Racing at the 2.66-mile oval. In just 13 races at the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series level, Vickers has posted six top-five qualifying efforts with Sospenzo at the helm, including three second-place starts -- but no poles.

TEAM 25 IMPROVING: With a 13th-place effort on Sunday at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway and a 12th-place result at Texas Motor Speedway two weeks ago, the No. 25 Hendrick Motorsports team has put together its best back-to-back finishes since May 2003 when it won at Richmond (Va.) International Raceway and finished 11th the following race at Lowe's Motor Speedway.

VICKERS AT TALLADEGA: In his only NASCAR Busch Series appearance at Talladega last season, Vickers, then 19, finished 23rd after being involved in a multi-car incident on Lap 9. Vickers, the 2003 Busch Series champion, returned to the event after extensive repairs to complete the remaining laps.

'25' TESTING UPDATE: GMAC Racing spent one day testing at Kentucky Speedway last week prior to the race at Martinsville. Following the completion of Sunday's event, the team traveled to Pennsylvania on Monday morning for two days of testing at Pocono Raceway in preparation for the June 13 NEXTEL Cup 200-lapper.

NEW CAR FOR VICKERS: The No. 25 team will field a new car for this weekend's 188-lap event at Talladega. Hendrick Motorsports Chassis No. 2554 will make its race debut after being introduced by the team during testing at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway in January.

FIGHTING BACK: During the course of the 500-lap event at Martinsville on Sunday, the No. 25 GMAC Financial Services team came back from a lap down not once, but twice en route to a 13th-place finish.

BRIAN VICKERS, DRIVER OF THE NO. 25 GMAC FINANCIAL SERVICES CHEVROLETS: (ON THE TEAM'S 13TH-PLACE FINISH AT MARTINSVILLE.) "I'm so proud of everyone on the team for not giving up. We lost a lap early, fought to get back on the lead lap and then lost another lap in the pits when there was a miscue during a pit stop. We realized we had a good car and kept working hard to get that second lap back. Finally, late in the race, we did, and ended up with a decent finish. Nobody ever gave up and our efforts were rewarded."

VICKERS: (IS THIS TEAM STARTING TO COME TOGETHER?) "We knew all along it was going to take a few races for the lines of communication to develop. We've had some successful tests at Kentucky and Pocono recently, which have provided some good information that we'll be able to use moving forward. The job isn't done by any means, but I like the progress we're making."

VICKERS: (ON SUPERSPEEDWAY RACING.) "I'm excited about Talladega because I enjoy superspeedway racing. At the same time, I will admit that competing at places like Daytona and Talladega can be frustrating because of instances like what happened to us a couple times last year (in the Busch Series) and at Daytona this season. It's easy to be swept up in someone else's accident that you had no part in causing -- that's the frustrating part. I look forward to running 195 mph, inches apart, door-to-door and three-wide for 500 miles. You are on the edge of your seat and so are the fans."