Brian Lee Vickers (born October 24, 1983) is an American former professional stock car racing driver. He last drove the No. 14 Chevrolet SS for Stewart–Haas Racing as an interim driver in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series for the injured Tony Stewart in 2016. He won the 2003 NASCAR Busch Series championship driving for Hendrick Motorsports. Vickers was also among the first series of full-time drivers for Toyota after the manufacturer first entered the Sprint Cup Series.
Vickers' career has been marred by a series of health issues since 2010 that have included blood clots and heart problems.
Racing career Early years Vickers began racing go-karts in 1994. Over the next three years, he won eighty races in the World Karting Association, and won three championships, including the 1995 championship against three-time winner Mike Schwartz. In 1998, he moved to the Allison Legacy Series and won five races during the course of the season. After competing in the NASCAR Dodge Weekly Racing Series in 1999, he moved to USAR ProCup and was named Rookie of the Year. He won two races in 2000. In 2001, he won five more races and finished second in points.
Vickers made his Busch Series debut in the 2001 GNC Live Well 250 at Milwaukee in the No. 29 car, owned by his father Clyde Vickers 's BLV Motorsports team. He qualified thirtieth and finished thirty-seventh after a crash. Vickers ran three more races that season; his best finish was 25th at North Carolina. In 2002, Vickers began running the Busch Series in his father's No. 40 Dodge Intrepid. He drove in twenty-one races, competing for Rookie of the Year honors; his best finish was seventh in the Hardee's 250 at Richmond, his only top ten of the season on his way to finishing thirtieth in series points.
2003 After a lack of funding for his family-owned team, Vickers was hired to replace Ricky Hendrick in the No. 5 GMAC-sponsored Chevrolet owned by Hendrick Motorsports. In 2003, Vickers won three races and the championship by fourteen points over David Green. Vickers became the then-youngest champion in Busch Series history at only twenty years old. Vickers made his Cup debut in the 2003 UAW-GM Quality 500 at Charlotte; qualifying twentieth and finishing 33rd in the No. 60 Haas Automation-sponsored Chevy. He ran four more races that season in Hendrick's No. 25 UAW/Delphi-sponsored Chevy; qualifying in the top-five each time. He almost won 2 poles at Phoenix & Rockingham, but posted only one top-twenty finish.
2004
In 2004, Vickers ran the No. 25 in the Cup Series full-time, carrying sponsorships from Ditech and GMAC. He won two poles, had four top-tens, and finished third behind Kasey Kahne and Brendan Gaughan for Rookie of the Year.
2005
In 2005, Vickers won the Nextel Open exhibition race. He was right behind Mike Bliss on the last lap. Rather than make a move to go around Bliss, Vickers ran into the back of the No. 0, spinning him out. Vickers went on to win. That qualified him for the annual Nextel All-Star Challenge, in which he finished third. Vickers finished the year seventeenth in Cup points with ten top tens, including career runs at the Pocono 500 and the Coca-Cola 600. He also returned to the Busch Series in a limited capacity in 2005, and finished third at Watkins Glen in the No. 5. He drove five other races in the No. 57.
2006 Vickers started out the 2006 season with a seventh-place finish in the Daytona 500. He went on to finish fifteenth in points with nine top tens, including a win at Talladega. However, the season was marred by conflicts within Hendrick Motorsports. On June 25, Vickers announced that he would leave Hendrick and drive for the new Team Red Bull in 2007. In the UAW-Ford 500, Dale Earnhardt Jr. was leading with Jimmie Johnson in second and Vickers in third on the final lap. Going down the backstretch, Johnson attempted to pass Dale Jr. on the inside, and Vickers tried to follow Jimmie and bump draft him past Earnhardt. Unfortunately, Vickers was too late to follow Johnson to the inside and instead hooked Jimmie in the right rear, causing Johnson to turn right into Dale Jr., and the two went spinning down to the infield to bring out the caution. Vickers went on to score his first victory. Johnson was livid with Vickers, and both he and his crew chief Chad Knaus questioned Vickers' motives with the bump, leading Knaus to state that Vickers had "run out of talent" prior to wrecking his teammate. Fortunately for Vickers, Johnson ended up winning the 2006 NEXTEL Cup Series Championship at Homestead-Miami Speedway leaving that race at Talladega behind. In 2006, Vickers also won a one-off race for Hendrick in the Autozone West Series at Sonoma.
2007
In 2007, Vickers drove the No. 83 Red Bull-sponsored Toyota Camry for the new Team Red Bull, with crew chief Doug Richert, as a teammate to A. J. Allmendinger. This season started out poorly when Vickers suffered a blown tire during his qualifying race for the Daytona 500, causing him to fail to qualify. The next week, the team regrouped, however, and scored a tenth-place finish in their first outing, the Auto Club 500 at California, which was coincidentally Toyota's first top-ten in the Cup Series. Two weeks later, Vickers led Toyota's first lap in the Cup Series at Atlanta.
On May 27, 2007, Vickers gave Toyota its first top-five ever in the Coca-Cola 600. Toyota brought a new engine to Charlotte, and Vickers showed its potential and surprised many by leading more than seventy laps of the race and having the dominant car. However, towards the end of the race, the power steering of the vehicle began to fail and eventually ceased operation completely. The team's luck continued to decline as Vickers soon blew a tire and slid into the turn four wall. Immediately as Vickers entered pit road, the caution flew for debris on the track; supposedly from his car. This was a saving grace, as it allowed the No. 83 car to stay on the lead lap, albeit off the pace and out of contention for the win. Richert managed to salvage the race through pit strategy, enabling Vickers to score a fifth-place finish.
Late in the 2007 season, Richert was fired from Team Red Bull and replaced by Randy Cox, who was formerly employed on Team Red Bull's Research and Development team. Vickers struggled for the remainder of the season as Team Red Bull began to focus on developing its Car of Tomorrow program, which would start competing full-time the next season. The resulting inattention to its "current car" program severely hampered Vickers' efforts during the remaining races of that platform. It was another problem in a long line for the entire Red Bull organization, as Vickers finished thirty-eighth in points and failed to qualify for thirteen races while his teammate Allmendinger missed nineteen races and finished forty-third. One of Vickers' failures to make the race was due to a disqualification from the lineup of the 2007 Lenox Industrial Tools 300, after his car failed post-qualifying inspection three times. Overall, Vickers scored one top five and five top tens in 23 starts with an average finish of 25.1, along with five DNFS.
2008
In 2008, Vickers, with new crew chief Kevin Hamlin, qualified for the fiftieth running of the Daytona 500 after racing himself in the field with an eleventh-place finish in the Gatorade Duel. He went on to make the next four races with an average finish of twenty-first, including a ninth-place finish at Atlanta.
Vickers' pit crew won the 2008 Pit Crew Challenge during the All-Star weekend. Vickers went on the next weekend and led sixty-one laps in the Coca-Cola 600 before he lost his left rear wheel and crashed about halfway through the race. Vickers then followed up with a second-place run at Pocono to Kasey Kahne. Vickers made every race that season in 2008, scoring three top fives and six top tens with an average finish of 20.7 while finishing an improved nineteenth in the standings.
2009: Only Chase appearance
For the 2009 season, Vickers got a new crew chief: Ryan Pemberton. It was announced that he has picked up an additional sponsor in Mighty Auto Parts.
Vickers' season began with controversy in the Daytona 500. Dale Earnhardt Jr. got a run on the backstretch to the inside of Vickers, but Vickers blocked. Earnhardt Jr. clipped the left rear fender, getting Vickers loose, sending him into the field. Vickers said after the race that Earnhardt should have been black-flagged. Earnhardt later stated that he was unaware that Vickers was a lap down, and that both were fighting for the Lucky Dog position. Earnhardt later apologized.
Vickers won the pole for the Auto Club 500, but had to go to the rear because of an engine change. Vickers went on to finish tenth.
Vickers ran in the top five all day during the Kobalt Tools 500. In the final laps, Vickers was chasing down Kurt Busch for the win, but Robby Gordon blew a tire to bring out the caution, allowing Jeff Gordon and Carl Edwards to catch Vickers on the restart. Vickers finished fifth.
Vickers won his second pole of the season for the Crown Royal 400 at Richmond. Vickers would finish fifteenth in that race.
On June 10, 2009, Team Red Bull conducted a promotional pit stop in New York City. Vickers pulled the No. 83 Red Bull Toyota to the side of the road, and the team changed four tires in Times Square with traffic still moving around them.
Vickers won his third pole of the season for the Lifelock 400 at Michigan. Vickers never led a lap in the race and earned a ninth-place finish.
Vickers won his fourth pole of the season for the Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Sonoma. Vickers finished sixteenth in that race.
Vickers won his fifth pole of the season for the Lifelock.com 400 at Chicagoland. Vickers finished seventh in the race.
Vickers won his sixth pole of the season at Michigan. He also won the pole for the Carfax 250. In the Nationwide race, he and his former teammate Kyle Busch were racing hard for the lead on the final lap, allowing the NASCAR rookie Brad Keselowski to pass both of them for the win. After the race, Busch confronted Vickers on pit road, accusing him of rough driving.
The next day, Vickers won the Carfax 400 from the pole for his second career Sprint Cup victory, Red Bull's first victory, and Toyota's first victory at Michigan. He did so after a late race gamble of not coming in to pit during the race's final caution. On the final restart, Vickers was first and Jimmie Johnson was second. With a little over forty laps to go, Vickers stayed behind Johnson most of the time, trying to save fuel. With just over three laps to go, Johnson ran out of fuel, while Vickers barely had enough to claim the win. This victory was also the first one for Red Bull Racing and the first for Red Bull's sponsorship in NASCAR.
Two days after the win, Vickers signed a multi-year extension with Red Bull.
After finishing seventh in the Chevy Rock and Roll 400 at Richmond, Vickers clinched a spot in the 2009 Chase for the Sprint Cup. He would finish twelfth in the standings, his highest points finish to date. His six poles in 2009 were second to Mark Martin's seven for most poles of the year. Vickers also had four top fives and thirteen top tens with an average finish of 17.3.
2010 On May 13, 2010, it was announced that Vickers, who had earned three top-tens in the first eleven races, would not be participating in the Autism Speaks 400 at Dover International Speedway due to an undisclosed medical condition, later revealed to be blood clots in his legs and around his lungs. Casey Mears was announced as his replacement. This ended a streak of 87 consecutive starts, which dated back to Atlanta in 2007. Vickers hoped to run a handful of laps before handing the car over to a relief driver in order to earn points, but was not medically cleared.