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Vickers loses points lead, falls to fifth
By Mark Spoor, Turner Sports Interactive October 25, 2003
5:00 PM EDT (2100 GMT)
HAMPTON, Ga. -- As has become common practice in recent weeks, the Busch Series standings got jumbled up after the Aaron's 312 on Saturday at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
That's bad news for Brian Vickers.
Vickers, the series leader heading into Saturday's action, spun out battling with Hank Parker Jr. 47 laps into the race. After electing to stay out to avoid losing a lap, Vickers cut a tire and suffered heavy damage to the fender of his No. 5 Chevrolet.
After several more trips to pit road, Vickers found himself 10 laps down to then-race leader Michael Waltrip.
He never recovered, finishing 31st.
Vickers now finds himself 49 points behind new points leader David Green, in fifth place.
"It just seems like all year long, the person that has the points lead every week just has horrible luck," Vickers said. "I don't know what Hank Parker Jr. was thinking. He tried to go three-wide for some reason. I guess that's why he's not driving full time.
Still, Vickers says the other Busch Series competitors haven't seen the last of him.
"We lost the points lead at Kansas and it only took us three races to get it back," he said. "Now we lost the lead and there's three races left, so we'll see what happens."
Scott Riggs was the big mover Saturday, jumping three spots into the runner-up position, just 13 points back of Green, after a sixth-place finish.
The effort couldn't have come at a better time for Riggs, who scored his first top-10 effort since he was third at Dover more than a month ago.
On his last pit stop, Riggs and his crew decided to just take two tires. He said the problems Vickers encountered didn't figure into his strategy.
"No, we pretty much threw strategy out the window a couple of weeks ago," he said. "We needed to run just as hard as we can and win as many races as we can. There's no strategy there."
In all, however, Riggs was happy with how the day turned out.
"Points-wise it was a better day," Riggs said. "We had a pretty good race car, but this is how we need to perform."
Jason Keller and Ron Hornaday are tied for third, both 35 points behind Green. Hornaday finished 13th while Keller crossed the line 15th.
Keller said he was fortunate to stay in the top five after struggling as much as he did.
"We just missed it all weekend," Keller said. "The only good thing is that we had some good stops on pit road and that kept us up as far as we were.
"I give us an A for effort, but we just didn't get the result we wanted."
Keller thinks he may have the best chance of all the contenders during the final few races of the season.
"We usually run good at Rockingham and Phoenix, so I'm looking forward to getting back at those, and Miami is an unknown for everybody."
Vickers loses points lead, falls to fifth
By Mark Spoor, Turner Sports Interactive October 25, 2003
5:00 PM EDT (2100 GMT)
HAMPTON, Ga. -- As has become common practice in recent weeks, the Busch Series standings got jumbled up after the Aaron's 312 on Saturday at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
That's bad news for Brian Vickers.
Vickers, the series leader heading into Saturday's action, spun out battling with Hank Parker Jr. 47 laps into the race. After electing to stay out to avoid losing a lap, Vickers cut a tire and suffered heavy damage to the fender of his No. 5 Chevrolet.
After several more trips to pit road, Vickers found himself 10 laps down to then-race leader Michael Waltrip.
He never recovered, finishing 31st.
Vickers now finds himself 49 points behind new points leader David Green, in fifth place.
"It just seems like all year long, the person that has the points lead every week just has horrible luck," Vickers said. "I don't know what Hank Parker Jr. was thinking. He tried to go three-wide for some reason. I guess that's why he's not driving full time.
Still, Vickers says the other Busch Series competitors haven't seen the last of him.
"We lost the points lead at Kansas and it only took us three races to get it back," he said. "Now we lost the lead and there's three races left, so we'll see what happens."
Scott Riggs was the big mover Saturday, jumping three spots into the runner-up position, just 13 points back of Green, after a sixth-place finish.
The effort couldn't have come at a better time for Riggs, who scored his first top-10 effort since he was third at Dover more than a month ago.
On his last pit stop, Riggs and his crew decided to just take two tires. He said the problems Vickers encountered didn't figure into his strategy.
"No, we pretty much threw strategy out the window a couple of weeks ago," he said. "We needed to run just as hard as we can and win as many races as we can. There's no strategy there."
In all, however, Riggs was happy with how the day turned out.
"Points-wise it was a better day," Riggs said. "We had a pretty good race car, but this is how we need to perform."
Jason Keller and Ron Hornaday are tied for third, both 35 points behind Green. Hornaday finished 13th while Keller crossed the line 15th.
Keller said he was fortunate to stay in the top five after struggling as much as he did.
"We just missed it all weekend," Keller said. "The only good thing is that we had some good stops on pit road and that kept us up as far as we were.
"I give us an A for effort, but we just didn't get the result we wanted."
Keller thinks he may have the best chance of all the contenders during the final few races of the season.
"We usually run good at Rockingham and Phoenix, so I'm looking forward to getting back at those, and Miami is an unknown for everybody."