BRIAN VICKERS NOTES & QUOTES
VICKERS RECORDS DOVER TOP-10:
Brian Vickers and GMAC Racing recorded a sixth-place result Sunday at Dover (Del.) International Speedway, marking the team’s third top-10 performance of 2005. With 13 races in the books, the 21-year-old has earned one top-five and three top-10 finishes, compared to just one top-10 at the same point in 2004.
PERFECT 10:
Rick Hendrick leads all car owners with 10 Cup Series wins at Pocono Raceway. Hendrick Motorsports has sent five different drivers to Victory Lane there: Tim Richmond (3), Jeff Gordon (3), Jimmie Johnson (2), Geoffrey Bodine (1) and Terry Labonte (1). Roger Penske is second all-time with five first-place finishes at the 2.5-mile venue.
VICKERS VISITS TEAM FOCUS:
On Tuesday, Vickers made the first of four scheduled trips to GMAC’s community outreach program, Team Focus. The weeklong summer camps provide fatherless boys ages 9-18 with leadership skills, guidance, Godly values and a continual relationship with a mentor. Vickers routinely spends time speaking with the youngsters about leadership, answering questions about racing and occasionally catching up with them on the baseball diamond or basketball court. In addition to visiting the Team Focus camp in Mobile, Ala., this week, Vickers will attend sessions in Michigan and Tennessee later this summer.
VICKERS BRINGIN’ HEAT AT ‘NASCAR NIGHT’:
Vickers, driver of the No. 25 GMAC/ditech.com Chevrolets, is scheduled to appear on Thursday at Commerce Bank Ballpark, home of the Somerset Patriots of the Atlantic Baseball League. The club, based in Bridgewater, N.J., is hosting “NASCAR Night,” where Vickers will be on hand to throw out the ceremonial first pitch and sign autographs.
TIM RICHMOND IN ’87:
The legendary Tim Richmond won the final two races of his career in 1987, the first coming at Pocono Raceway on June 14. He went to Victory Lane again one week later at the now-defunct Riverside (Calif.) International Raceway. The triumphs marked the first two of Richmond’s eight Cup Series starts for Hendrick Motorsports that season. He won nine of his 37 races -- including three at Pocono -- in 1986 and 1987 combined.
CHASSIS 294 FOR VICKERS:
For the Pocono 500, GMAC Racing will field Hendrick Motorsports Chassis No. 294, marking the first official appearance of the car in 2005. The team utilized the same machine for NEXTEL Cup testing at Lowe’s Motor Speedway in May, but a blown tire sent the car into the outside retaining wall. Prior to that, the car had been the fastest in testing with Vickers behind the wheel.
VICKERS AT POCONO:
In two career races at Pocono, Vickers has accumulated two top-10 starts with an average qualifying position of fourth and an average finish of 13.5.
PENNSYLVANIA HOMECOMING FOR ‘25’:
Four members of the GMAC Racing crew will be making a visit to their home state when the NEXTEL Cup Series rolls into Pennsylvania this weekend. Rear-tire changer Jeff Fabian is from Everett, while gasman Chris Fasulka hails from nearby Wilkes-Barre. Also from the Keystone State are crew members Matt Myers, a rear-tire carrier tire from Ford City, and Dave Radney of Towanda, who is responsible for driving the team transporter.
BRIAN VICKERS, DRIVER OF THE NO. 25 GMAC/ditech.com CHEVROLETS:
(ON THE TEAM’S RECENT STRONG PERFORMANCES.) “I know our team has the potential to run up front on a consistent basis. It’s just taken some time for us to get everything where we want it. There have been lots of changes, hard work, time and money invested in making this group better. Lance (McGrew, crew chief) and the team have provided me with some very competitive cars this season, but we’ve also been caught up in some incidents that have prevented us from getting the finishes. Brian Whitesell’s (team manager) experience has helped the Nos. 5 and 25 teams bridge the gap between the Nos. 24 and 48. At Lowe’s, we had a great car and walked away with nothing to show for it. But together as a team, we showed people we could run up front. We’re now taking what we learned and applying it. During our team meeting before the Dover race we talked about using Charlotte as a building block for the rest of the season. So we just picked up where we left off and hope to do the same at Pocono and further down the road.”
