After a third consecutive nightmare weekend at Lowe's Motor Speedway, NASCAR Chase driver Brian Vickers now trails points leader Jimmie Johnson by 485 points.
Once again, the young Red Bull Team had their hands full with the No. 83 Toyota from the moment it rolled off the truck. In a rain delayed first practice on Thursday night, the best Vickers could muster was a speed of 38th quickest. He would go on to qualify 30th. Although a great improvement from Thursday, practice times of 13th and 24th best in the Friday sessions still fell well short of the standards that Chase teams set for themselves.
Given his stellar record at Lowe's Motor Speedway, it was no surprise that Vickers' driving abilities would make up for his relative lack of team resources come race day. By lap fifty, he had advanced from his starting position in the fifteenth row and was running in the top ten. Then came more trouble...
During a restart on lap 124, he was involved in a stack up and suffered significant damage to his right front splitter. On a track that produces such fast speeds and where good handling is at a premium, such damage proved too costly. Vickers cruised around towards the back of the pack for the rest of the race and finished 34th.
For the second straight week, Jimmie Johnson held off teammate Jeff Gordon in a series of late race restarts to take home the checkered flag. The three-time defending champion extended his lead over Mark Martin and now leads the Sprint Cup Chase Standings by 90 points.
To see how all of the Chase drivers fared this weekend, click here.
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