Less than a year ago, Brian Vickers was a few breaths from death. Now one of NASCAR’s best young talents is back, partying harder—and ready to race harder—than ever.
The sun disappears behind the loft building in Manhattan where 27-year-old Brian Vickers, NASCAR driver and millionaire many times over, fixes a vodka on ice. Stepping onto the roof deck of the penthouse duplex he keeps in SoHo (he lives in Florida and trains in North Carolina, but stays here when he’s not boozing in the Bahamas, backcountry snowboarding in Colorado, or hunting musk oxen in the Arctic Circle), he tightens his lamb’s-wool scarf and flicks a light switch. Illuminated are two Jacuzzis, a well-stocked bar, a barbecue pit, and padded banquettes that could hold a dozen or more chicks in bikinis. “I just put up these redneck decorations yesterday,” he says, pointing to Christmas lights draped carefully over a leafless arbor and two lighted reindeer. Around the corner is a raised wooden platform with a stunning view of
the Empire State Building.
