Brian Vickers Credit: Autostock

Q&A: Brian Vickers

The folowing is a transcript of the teleconference with Brian Vickers on June 14:

You're one of the young drivers among veteran drivers in the Nextel Cup. Can you tell us if and how the mix influences your thoughts about racing at the Nextel Cup level?

I love racing at this level. I don't think that age has a lot to do with it. It's more about who you are and how you race. Just because you're young doesn't mean that you don't have a decent amount of experience or knowledge to run at this level. I've been racing for 14 years now. There's guys in their 30's that have come into the sport that haven't raced as long as I have. On the track, you get treated based upon your actions and how you race others -- that's only fair. It can be difficult at times to be young and run at this level, or to be young in any pro sport. There can be a lot of pressure from the media and sponsors.

BRIAN VICKERS •   Driver Page •   2005 Statistics •   Superstore: Vickers gear! Inside the Numbers Brian Vickers in 2005 Track Start Finish Result Pocono 3 2 running Dover 27 6 running Charlotte 14 31 crash Richmond 29 32 running Darlington 5 16 running Talladega 37 38 crash Phoenix 5 5 running Texas 24 34 running Martinsville 27 35 running Bristol 12 12 running Atlanta 8 6 running Las Vegas 32 43 crash Fontana 2 21 running Daytona 28 21 running

Were you prepared for everything associated with competing at the Cup level when you joined the series last year?

I think that the way I came along and progressed with the help of a lot of people, like my parents, and the way my parents raised me, running Busch and Hooters Cup and all those things helped prepare me. In a lot of ways I was prepared, but in a lot of ways I wasn't. More than anything, I knew that the Cup level was very similar to the Busch level from the standpoint of there being a lot of the same things like sponsors, commitments, the media, the fans, the at-track stuff, but I never anticipated how much more there is of it all. On the Cup side everything is much more intense, more of just everything, really.

There's a school of thought that rookie drivers or younger drivers should show some level of difference to the veteran drivers. That if you're racing for position you don't put your bumper in certain places and this sort of thing. I'm thinking from what you just said that's not really how you approach it. How do you see it?

I think that you should respect the veteran drivers for what they've accomplished and what they've done for the sport. I think you should have a lot of respect for them in a lot of different ways, but, I disagree that you should give them anything. I don't expect to be given anything and I don't expect to give anyone else anything on the racetrack just because they're older than me. I'm going to race them the same way that I'd want to be raced and I'd expect to receive the same consideration.

Your season this year has shown significant improvement over last year. Can you point to a couple of things? What are the reasons behind the improvement?

There's a lot of reason for the improvement and kind of hard just to point to one thing. We've gone through several changes at Hendrick Motorsports in the past year. Look at what Rick and the Hendrick family have done for me and for these two teams. They built a new 5 and 25 shop bringing the teams together. It's not the building that makes the difference, it's the people inside of it and two heads are better than one. Brian Whitesell coming over has helped bridge the gap, between the 24/48 teams. Reuniting Lance and I who have a communication with each other unparallel to anybody else I've worked with. The whole organization works as a team. The guys in the shop and on the pit crew are working hard. Good sponsors like GMAC, ditech.com, Chevy and all of our sponsors have stuck behind us through the tough times. It gives you confidence knowing they support you. All of those things add up. M ore than anything, I think Lance is doing a phenomenal job at building great cars and setting them up really well.

Kyle [Busch] has shown some flashes of brilliance this year that a lot of people might not have expected from him quite this early. How do you see how he's done so far this year?

He's done really well. I think putting the 5/25 teams under one roof is really coming together. Alan [Gustafson] has done a phenomenal job with that car. Kyle's in good equipment and they're learning together, but Kyle's definitely taking care of business from his end.

Do you see any parallels between what happened in Texas in 2003 and what happened in Charlotte two weeks ago and the teams response to it?

We've definitely thought about that and it felt like there are some similarities between the two events. Lance and I have talked about it. We just used what happened at Charlotte a few weeks ago as motivation, just like we did in 2003. It was unfortunate what happened because we had a phenomenal car, the car to beat and it just work out for us. That night we proved to ourselves, just like we did in Texas that for the first time as a Cup team, this group of people can win races and can put together winning cars. I've just got to be patient and learn from everything going on and take those final few steps to get that win.

What specifically has changed lately or since the All-Star race?

It's a matter of all of everything coming together. We knew with all of the changes, things weren't going to turn around overnight. We had to build new cars and when you build new cars you want the bodies to be right and those processes take time. You're starting to see the effects of that. We're just now getting to where we can run new cars. We had one or two new cars at the beginning of the season, but one of them got wrecked in Vegas when we were wrecked by Junior, and another one got tore up when we blew a right front tire at a test in Charlotte. So there goes two cars out the window. We're just now getting those cars back in the cycle.

Lance and I have communication that's building again and he's learning these Cup cars. He is a phenomenal crew chief, but, this is his first year in Cup and he's got to learn these cars and some of the tracks. All of it is coming together. There have been guys that go out and they win in their first or their second race. Look at Carl [Edward] who has done a phenomenal job. He's won two races right off the bat. Then you can look Jeff Gordon who didn't win a race in his first season. He made some mistakes and learned a lot and it took him time to grow and adapt. and that team to really come together and gel, but man when they did, you couldn't stop it.

You know, it was a slow build, but it was a strong build. It took them a while to build that foundation, but they built it strong and it lasted and it went a long way. And that's what we're trying to do here. We're not trying to build a team that can win a race to say we won a race. We want to build a team that can win championships for years.

With the recent success here in the last month, how much do you focus more on winning now as opposed to, I guess as a Rookie you probably just look at try to finish, run laps, get top-15s, top-10s. How much more does winning become more a part of your thinking or equation as you go into these races with what's happened in the last month?

At the beginning of 2003 season, for example, we went into that season as a building season and, hey, you know, right now let's focus on getting some good solid finishes. Learning every week. Learn each other. Grow this team and building new cars and bring them back home in one piece, and getting the best finish we can out of them, you know, with reasonable risk. And as the season went on, hey, we were running good. Running better and better and better. And then all of a sudden you get -- you start going on the race track as a team and you feel -- you know, when you walk through those gates you feel like, you know, hey, we can win this thing. So then you get your mind changed a little bit and you still go in -- you go into a race and you feel a little bit confident about -- more confident about how you're going to run and you go there, you know, and with intentions of trying to win the race, which you always do that, but I guess in a little bit different way.

And I think that -- when that starts taking place it just builds and builds and builds and, yeah, you want to go to -- do you still go to the racetrack. I mean, right now, you know, did I want to win that race in Pocono? Yes. I wanted to win that race really bad. There's nothing more than I would like right now than to get a Cup victory. But it was -- you know, the risk versus reward. I mean, because -- I mean, Carl at the end of that race on old tires was very fast. I mean, did I push the car to the limit to try to catch him on that last turn, the last lap when the green and white checker and maybe -- maybe squeeze by him. You know, maybe. I don't think so. I got to think Carl was that good, but did I push the issue and maybe got a win? Yeah, there's that possibility.

But at that time was that risk, the risk of tearing the car up and taking a top-two finish -- an easy top-two finish -- to turn it into a 36 finish was not worth the reward, you know, because right now, yeah, that win is what we want, but at the same time we want to get back in that top ten. And we've got five points for leading. We got five points for leading the most. You know, we were getting ready to have, you know, enough points from second -- you know, coming out of second place and the five points difference, you know, versus the-- you know, risk versus reward that it was going to be to try to win that race wasn't worth it.

Since you brought that up I was just kind of curious. It's kind of interesting what you're saying. How, and maybe these are two different situations -- correct me on it. How is it -- how you treated Pocono, was that different than with what happened in Charlotte? I mean, I know you were further back trying to get up toward the front at the end.

I mean, obviously one was second in the first and one was trying to get from, you know 22nd to first. But at the same time, you know, I tried to learn from the mistake I made at Charlotte in getting impatient. You know, we had the winning car, you know, by far at Charlotte and something happened out of our control that put us back in a situation. And all I was thinking about was getting back to the front and winning, and -- and that's what got me in that situation. You know, because I wanted that first win so bad. And -- you know, and I learned from that personally. And I also talked to my teammate, you know, Jeff. I talked to Jeff about that for a while, you know, about the situation. And he said, you know what helps him in a situation like that is, yeah, you want to win the race, but, you know, when something like that happens out of your control, there's nothing you can do about it.

ou've got to accept that and you've got to accept that and you've got to move on. He goes at that point in time in that race, he goes, you're in 22nd place. You've got the winning car. He goes, right now winning that race was the last thing that you've got on your mind. Right now you need to try to make it a top 15 car at the end of a race like that. He goes -- and if you get the top -- if you get to 15th and you're still going forward, okay, now let's make a top ten out of it. Let's come out of here with a good day. We had some bad luck, let's take it home. When you get the chance, okay, now let's try to make a top five out of it, and if you get to fifth, you know, you get to the fifth and the situation, you know, opportunity comes like -- like it did for Jimmy to win the race, then you go after it. But you don't -- you don't start at 22nd going after the win. You start at 22nd you're going for the top ten or top 15 and then see what happens when you get there.

You're kind of in an unusual good/challenging position. Number 1, you're friends with some of the big drivers, Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson. So you're running in the big circle, but you're a young guy.

I've got a great opportunity to be able to race with those guys, be friends with them and driving really good equipment. I've had a phenomenal opportunity to learn from the best. More importantly, we've become good friends. I can approach those guys very easily. Being at Hendrick Motorsports as a whole and being in good equipment helps your confidence, especially when we run the way we've been running lately. We've just got to continue that and hopefully one day we can be one of those guys.

Can you talk about your relationship with Carl [Edwards]. He said he learned more about you in three hours during the race?

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You can learn so much about a person's personality on the race track. I haven't really spent a lot of time around Carl and him around me. I think both of us honestly have very similar personalities. I think if we got to know each other we would probably be surprised at how similar we are. And I think that's maybe what surprised him. We're respectful and in the right situation we're going to work with each other. At Dover, for instance, we had a really good car and I got to Carl at one point in that race and he knew I was faster. It was midway through the race and he pointed me by. It wasn't that that surprised me, but it showed a lot of maturity from him, especially being his first year on the circuit. I returned that favor to us when he got to us halfway through the race on Sunday because he was obviously faster. There was no reason for me to race him at that point. You can hold a guy off for a win for a couple of laps, but you can't hold him off for 250 miles.

There was times when I was better than him and we checked out. We threw some hand signals out jokingly, you know, good stuff. Thumbs up and things like that, just having fun joking around out there. We pushed our cars to the limit when we were racing, but once somebody got a position whether it was him or I, we treated each other with a lot of respect and I learned a lot about him as well.

What would you like people to know about you? What would you want people to know about you, because when you were struggling earlier they would say, well, he's hanging around with the big guys, but he's still a young driver.

When I first came into NASCAR and the Hendrick Motorsports organization, I was good friends with Ricky, living with Ricky, so I got to know those guys and became really good friends with Jeff and Jimmie. Those guys have been in the sport for a while and they've accomplished a lot. They've got planes, they travel a lot. They've got a lot of experience on and off the racetrack. It's tough at times when you're coming into the sport and you're around these guys and they're flying all over the place and sometimes you're going with them. Sometimes you're not. That can be different because you know you're at two different levels. At the same time, you can learn so much from their experiences on and off the track.

What are your feelings goings into this weekend, coming off the recent success you've had and what are you guy's goals for this weekend?

Our GMAC Racing team has been fortunate to have some good runs as of late and it feels good. We're really pumped up for Michigan. This weekend's race is another opportunity for us to make some more strides and continue making progress in the points. I like the track a lot and Lance [McGrew, crew chief] has a good track record there. We're bringing a brand new car, one that we're really pleased with how it turned out. Our goals for Michigan are high, but still reasonable. We go to every race to try and win. Right now, we'd like to leave Michigan with a good day in the point standings and our car in one piece. If that means winning the race, great. However, if we have to settle for a top-five or top-10 finish, we'll be happy with that, too.

Does it start to get frustrating knowing your team is at the point where you can win, but you haven't been able to really break through and capture that first victory yet?

Not frustrating. Do I want to win? Yes. Do I like to go home finishing second? No. I've been racing for 14 years and this isn't the first time in my career that I've gone through this where you've gotten to where you can run with the leaders and you're capable of winning the race, but you just can't quite get over that hump. The most difficult part of the process is taking that last step, getting from second to first. You don't do anything different and I know we don't need to do anything different than we did this past weekend. We just need to keep doing that every weekend and we'll have plenty of wins. We'll have plenty of top fives -- I know that from past experience. The difference between the second-place runs we had in the Busch Series versus the wins weren't that much different. It was just time. You've got to be patient.