Vickers Earns Another Top-10 Finish at Nashville

LEBANON, Tenn. (June 9, 2003) – The GMAC Racing team displayed a lot of character and a never-say-die attitude Saturday night at Nashville Superspeedway, despite an early setback. The team never gave up and when the checkered flag waved, their efforts were rewarded with another top-10 finish. The beginning laps of the race looked very similar to the NASCAR Busch Series event at Nashville Superspeedway in April, when driver Brian Vickers spun early and went on to finish ninth. Fast forward to Saturday night. Early in the race on Lap 10 Vickers was racing side-by-side with the No. 2 Chevrolet when Vickers’ No. 5 Chevrolet spun in Turn 3, avoiding any contact. Immediately following the spin, Vickers brought the No. 5 GMAC Financial Services Chevrolet to pit road for damage assessment and to change four tires. Vickers restarted the race on Lap 14 in 38th, but bad luck struck the team again on Lap 27 when the driver radioed that he had another flat tire. Upon further inspection, the team noticed one of the brake-duct hoses had become dislodged and was rubbing the right-front tire, resulting in the flat. On Lap 32, the team managed to cut away the damaged hose and sent Vickers out to rejoin the race. On Lap 35, Vickers pitted once more, but was penalized for speeding on pit road. When the race finally restarted on Lap 40, Vickers was running in 36th, four laps down to the leader, and it appeared the chances for a good finish had quickly vanished, but despite the circumstances, everyone remained calm and went on with their business. By Lap 80 Vickers had moved into 29th and by Lap 104 he had moved into 23rd. As the laps passed, what seemingly was going to be a dismal night was slowly turning into a not-so-bad outing after all. Running lap times as fast as or faster than the leader, Vickers continued his progress and by Lap 130 had moved into 20th. On Lap 134 the caution flag waved and he pitted for four tires and fuel. He restarted the race on Lap 137 still in 20th. With the help of a timely caution flag on Lap 153, Vickers was able to make up one of his four laps and was not finished there. The remaining 100 laps of the race saw a very high attrition rate as many of the front-running teams fell by the wayside. On Lap 191 Vickers was being scored in 14th after having made up another lap. The remaining 34 laps saw Vickers pass the No. 55 Chevrolet of Paul Menard for 11th place and beat the wounded No. 21 Chevrolet of Johnny Sauter, who was caught up in an accident on Lap 218, to the checkered flag by just a few feet to finish 10th. Saturday night’s effort was the team’s fourth top-10 finish in the last four races and vaulted the GMAC team into fifth place in the driver standings, just 175 markers out of first place. GMAC Racing will be back in action June 14 under the lights at Kentucky Speedway. Live coverage of the event will begin at 7:30 p.m. EDT on FX and MRN Radio.