Vickers under the gun
It's pretty rare that a driver outside of the Chase for the Cup gets to steal the spotlight in October. But Brian Vickers would probably prefer to lay low this week.
Vickers has drawn plenty of criticism for his actions at last week's UAW Ford 500 at the famed Talladega Superspeedway. Running in third place behind Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Jimmie Johnson, Vickers accidentally bumped into Johnson - his Hendrick Motorsports teammate - on the last lap of the race. That caused Johnson to careen into Earnhardt; both men spun out, and Vickers cruised to victory.
With Vickers already considered persona non grata in the Hendrick garage (he's moving to Team Red Bull next season), last week's events made the North Carolina native even more of a pariah. He'll be getting a beefed-up security escort this Saturday night at Lowe's Motor Speedway in his home state for the Bank of America 500. Track officials arranged the extra security after a deluge of irate phone calls from NASCAR fans.
Johnson can sympathize with the fans. His chances at winning his first Nextel Cup took a hit when he had to settle for a 24th-place finish at Talladega; Johnson is now 156 points behind Chase leader Jeff Burton with six races left to go in the season. Perhaps he can channel his anger this week at Lowe's, one of his favorite tracks on the NASCAR circuit. Johnson is favored at +450 to win Saturday night's race. Vickers is well down the odds list at +4000.
Johnson is the two-time defending winner of this event. Not only that, he's won five of his last seven appearances in Charlotte, and has finished no worse than seventh since crashing out of his 2001 debut at Lowe's. But Johnson, believe it or not, isn't technically the best of the best on this track - that honor goes to Carl Edwards (+1400). In three career races at Lowe's, Edwards has placed third twice and 10th once, for an average result of 5.33 compared to 6.2 for Johnson. Sometimes, the statistics do lie.
Television coverage on NBC gets underway at 7:00 p.m. Eastern Time.
Click here for Live Lines, Cash Games and more...
It's pretty rare that a driver outside of the Chase for the Cup gets to steal the spotlight in October. But Brian Vickers would probably prefer to lay low this week.
Vickers has drawn plenty of criticism for his actions at last week's UAW Ford 500 at the famed Talladega Superspeedway. Running in third place behind Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Jimmie Johnson, Vickers accidentally bumped into Johnson - his Hendrick Motorsports teammate - on the last lap of the race. That caused Johnson to careen into Earnhardt; both men spun out, and Vickers cruised to victory.
With Vickers already considered persona non grata in the Hendrick garage (he's moving to Team Red Bull next season), last week's events made the North Carolina native even more of a pariah. He'll be getting a beefed-up security escort this Saturday night at Lowe's Motor Speedway in his home state for the Bank of America 500. Track officials arranged the extra security after a deluge of irate phone calls from NASCAR fans.
Johnson can sympathize with the fans. His chances at winning his first Nextel Cup took a hit when he had to settle for a 24th-place finish at Talladega; Johnson is now 156 points behind Chase leader Jeff Burton with six races left to go in the season. Perhaps he can channel his anger this week at Lowe's, one of his favorite tracks on the NASCAR circuit. Johnson is favored at +450 to win Saturday night's race. Vickers is well down the odds list at +4000.
Johnson is the two-time defending winner of this event. Not only that, he's won five of his last seven appearances in Charlotte, and has finished no worse than seventh since crashing out of his 2001 debut at Lowe's. But Johnson, believe it or not, isn't technically the best of the best on this track - that honor goes to Carl Edwards (+1400). In three career races at Lowe's, Edwards has placed third twice and 10th once, for an average result of 5.33 compared to 6.2 for Johnson. Sometimes, the statistics do lie.
Television coverage on NBC gets underway at 7:00 p.m. Eastern Time.
Click here for Live Lines, Cash Games and more...
