By Jen Dunnaway

Editor

Brian Vickers, driver for the No. 83 Toyota, was in the garage at Charlotte during practice today advising his replacement driver, Casey Mears. Vickers is officially out for the remainder of the Sprint Cup season due to those blood clots he developed right before Dover. Since he’s now on blood thinners, he can drive but can’t crash, because of the potentially catastrophic nature of even minor injuries he could sustain. Mears will finish out the season in his place, and while that sucks for Vickers, it’s awesome that since being taken out he has been pretty much everywhere the 83 car is, talking with Mears about the car and helping out his team. The guy has been such a trooper that I’m sure he’s going to rebound just fine from what for anyone else could be a potentially career-ending setback.

Vickers has joined the abc broadcast team in the booth, where he’ll sit tight for the duration of the Nationwide race. Tune in now to watch!

NASCAR coverage brought to you by Valvoline Engine Guarantee–the first and only motor oil in the industry that will guarantee your engine up to 300,000 miles. *Registration required, some limitations apply.

By Jen Dunnaway

Editor

Brian Vickers, driver for the No. 83 Red Bull Toyota and one-time Chase contender when he squeaked into the 12th spot ahead of Kyle Busch last year, has been hospitalized for mysterious blood clots and will not race this weekend at Dover. Red Bull Racing honcho Jay Frye said Vickers was on an “intense type dosage” of stabilizing meds as doctors try to figure out what’s going on with the multiple clots, one of which is threatening his lungs. Frye  cited occupational hazards of the racing life as a possible cause of Vickers’ condition; as David Caraviello pointed out in his article for NASCAR.com,

Clots in veins often occur when blood flow becomes stagnant, and can be caused by something as mundane as sitting for long periods of time, which drivers certainly do in the race car. Carbon monoxide exposure can also play a role in clots that develop in the lungs.

Casey Mears will drive the No. 83 Toyota on Sunday in his place, but the setback basically kills Vickers’ chances of making the Chase for the Cup this year–doctor’s orders are that he can’t even run the first lap of Sunday’s race and then swap out, as sick and injured drivers have sometimes done as a means of preserving their hold on the points standings. Best wishes to Brian Vickers for a complete and speedy recovery–sure we’ve loved to hate on him sometimes, but we’d rather see him back racing. Follow the jump for more driver drama.

NASCAR coverage brought to you by Valvoline Engine Guarantee–the first and only motor oil in the industry that will guarantee your engine up to 300,000 miles. *Registration required, some limitations apply.

Continue reading "Adversity Piles Up For NASCAR Drivers Ahead Of Dover Race Weekend: Vickers Hospitalized, Kyle Busch “Shot Down”" »

By Jen Dunnaway

Editor

Oh my god, the Daytona 500. I’ve been looking forward to it for months–months!–and apart from the rain delay that handed Matt Kenseth the win (congrats to him anyway), Daytona’s fabled superspeedway did not disappoint. One point of contention was the “controversial” wreck on lap 124 triggered by Brian Vickers and Dale Earnhardt Jr. that sent race cars scattering like marbles and swept out a quarter of the field, including past champs and credible contenders for the win. No one who witnessed Fox Sports’ two-dozen-or-so replays can help but have an opinion about the hellacious crash. From what I saw, Vickers basically ran Earnhardt off the racetrack and then got his just desserts when Junior bobbed back up from the infield shoulder, clipping Vickers in the left rear and sending him into a spin that caused a ten-car pileup. But the prevailing buzz is that Junior’s “pent-up frustration” after an entire week of pit mishaps was what compelled him to orchestrate the disastrous wreck, a perspective echoed by Vickers himself (that redheaded stepchild) who accused Earnhardt of “intentionally wrecking in front of the whole field” just so that he could benefit from the ensuing caution. I dunno, it just don’t sit right: Earnhardt typically isn’t a driver who fights that kind of dirty. And from the broadcast, it was pretty clear (especially from the No. 88 car’s on-board footage, which we didn’t get to see until after the race) that Earnhardt had a legitimate run on Vickers, who dove to the bottom only at the last possible moment, becoming the instrument of his own undoing. It was too late for Junior to check up, and if he he’d tried, it was more than likely that the subsequent shockwave would’ve caused an equally catastrophic wreck in the back of the field, albeit one that Vickers would have conveniently sailed away from, unscathed. But hell, I’ll admit that my opinion is biased by my guarded admiration for Earnhardt and my impression of Vickers as “one of those Red Bull Toyota yahoos” who get recruited on the basis of image and swagger rather than on any real chops as stock-car drivers. I dunno: was it a boneheaded move by Vickers that wrecked the field? Or is Junior really that much of a dick?

By Jen Dunnaway

Editor

At the Coca Cola 600 on Sunday, Brian Vickers watched his left rear wheel run away with his hopes for winning NASCAR’s longest race. The wheel worked itself completely loose and came off, snapping his No. 83 Toyota backwards into the wall, then demolishing the front of David Gilliland’s Ford before thundering into the infield. The flying wheel narrowly missed both an ambulance and a photographer, then jumped a chain-link fence and tore the awning off a fan’s camper before finally coming to rest. Miraculously, no one was hurt, and camper owner Jerry Gardner of North Carolina probably figured he’d scored himself the souvenir of a lifetime until track security officiously bustled the errant wheel away on an ATV. I’d be mad as hell about not getting to keep that wheel—and fans should have at the very least received an apologetic visit from Vickers, who reportedly knew it was coming loose for a couple of laps before the incident. If you’ve ever wondered what could happen if your own wheel came off on the highway, click here to watch the entire alarming but ultimately non-lethal rampage.

Continue reading "Brian Vickers' Runaway Wheel Cuts Path of Destruction" »