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On the Outside, Looking to Get into the NASCAR Chase
Brian Vickers is on the bubble, and in control of his destiny to make the NASCAR Sprint Cup 'Chase'
Credit: PaddockTalk/Bill Brennan
By Brad Gerhart
It all comes down to this.
One more race, one more chance to get in for multiple race winner Kyle Busch and fellow Toyota driver, Brian Vickers, to attempt to unseat any one of the eight drivers ahead of them to qualify for this year's championship run.
The Chevy Rock'n Roll 400 is sure to be a smashing hit at the small WHAT mile track of Richmond International Raceway.
With 11 drivers ahead of Busch, he's 14th in the points, 37 behind former series champion Matt Kenseth. For Bush he fully expected himself to be in the Chase already, unfortunately for the 2005 Cup rookie of the year, things did not go as planned throughout the first 25 races of the season.
However, Busch did win at Richmond back in May (on his birthday, 2nd) and he also came out on top with another short track victory at Bristol a few weeks ago. He sure is hoping that his recent short track success pushes him forward into the top-12. "We're trying to get ourselves back in position to get ourselves a place this weekend, run strong, hard, and come out of Richmond with a good finish," Busch said.
A year ago Busch had perhaps the best car going into the Chase with eight wins and 17 top-fives, to make him an early favorite in the final 10 races, only to see him collapse during that time with many different issues and finish well off the in the championship.
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This year its a little different with Busch attempting to claw his way at the last possible moment after he went through several tough weekends in which he finished outside the top-15 a highly unusual 15 times over the course of 25 races. "We haven't been as good as we've needed to be. Unfortunately we're in this predicament," said Busch. "For some reason we just haven't been able to hit our stride. We need to get back to being able to be consistent week in and week out."
Busch truly realizes that without a superb result at RIR he won’t be in the Chase, even though it boils down to this one race, it really comes down to all the lost opportunities throughout the entire season. "It's not going to be Richmond that keeps us out; it's going to be the rest of the year that we've had our struggles that's going to be what kept us from being in the Chase,” said. At the same time the No. 18 remains upbeat about the final out come. “I feel good about it. I'm excited about our chances. I feel like we can go out there and try to win another one. That's all we can do to put ourselves in the Chase. “
Like Busch, Vickers is a few back of Kenseth for the final spot, however, he's a little closer at 20 points. Although Vickers has won a race for the Red Bull team this season he's been fairly consistent with 12 top-10 finishes. Him and his No.83 team are not going to concentrate on what other teams are doing during the race. Rather they want to get the most of their car and whatever they cannot control is truly out of their hands. "Our strategy is going to essentially be to gain the most amount of points possible. We can't get tied up in what everyone is doing," said Vickers who ironically battled with both Kenseth and Bush during the Atlanta race.
Unlike Busch who has won at Richmond, Vickers has yet to find his way to victory lane, even though he started from pole on two separate occasions. "We haven't won a race there. It hasn't been one of our best tracks either," Vickers said.
Yes, Vickers will need a solid top-10 result to make the Chase, along with a few other things to happen as well but if the majority of the drivers ahead of him and Busch finish inside the top-15, there’s next to no chance to move up in the standings.
Any way one looks at it there's bound to be several highly talented drivers and teams who do not qualify for this year's Chase edition. It's been such a tight up and down battle throughout the season for all of those involved, some will bask in the glory at RIR come Saturday, others will be forced to look at the final 10 races as a build up for the 2010 season.
But hey, as they say: That's Racin!
Brad Gerhart
bgerhart@paddocktalk.com
PaddockTalk Perspective
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