History repeated for Brian Vickers at the Dover International Speedway on September 27, and it wasn’t exactly the kind of thing he wanted to see.
After he started the Chase for the Cup a week ago with an inspired drive to 11th from 26th on the grid in New Hampshire, Vickers hoped the momentum would continue at the championship playoff’s second stop in Delaware.
But things didn’t go exactly as planned.
As with the first visit to Delaware in May, rain washed the track overnight before the race and made Vickers’s life miserable in the AAA 400.
“The car wasn’t as good as we wanted it to be,” Vickers said after finishing 18th at the Monster Mile last Sunday.
“We made some wholesale changes Saturday night, and I think some helped us and some hurt us.”
His finish in Dover was the second-worst of the 12 drives in the Chase for the Cup — only Denny Hamlin, who finished two laps down in 22nd place, ended the day behind Vickers — and dropped the number 83 Red Bull Toyota driver from eighth to 10th in the standings. With eight races to go in the Chase, Vickers is 151pts behind leader Mark Martin.
Earlier this year, Vickers also struggled with grip problems at Dover. He started that race ninth and finished 25th.
But the less-than-optimum result wasn’t unexpected, since Dover hasn’t exactly been kind to Vickers over the years, with his average finish at the circuit at around 21st place. In his 12 career starts at Dover, Vickers has managed only one top-10 finish.
The high-banked track and its bumpy turns often give drivers fits. And, the transition from the steep corners to the straights often makes for some trouble.
Last weekend’s race was no different. It was marked by a frightening crash involving rookie Joey Logano on a restart on lap 32. Logano got bumped from behind and went sideways down the back straight. Things went from bad to worse as Logano arrived in turn three and began sliding up the three-storey banking into traffic.
He flashed past the windscreen of number 82 Red Bull driver Scott Speed, who was able to avoid the spinning car, but only by inches.
After hitting the wall, Logano bounced into the air just as Reed Sorenson made contact. That sent the number 20 Toyota tumbling down the 24-degree banking. Logano rolled eight times before coming to rest in the apron. He walked away.
When racing resumed, things also went downhill for Vickers, who slid down the field as he battled to find speed in his car. While he felt the team got the car working pretty well by the end of the race, things just didn’t work out as planned.
“In the last two stops, we didn't take fuel, hoping that would tighten us up, and it did,” he said.
“It tightened us up a little bit too much. [At] the last stop, we took two tyres and no fuel, and we were just way too tight at the end.”
Speed’s Dover race went a bit better than his team-mate’s. He moved up in the leaderboard by finishing 25th, after starting 39th.
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