CLERMONT, Ind. - For nearly 180 laps, Brian Vickers was at Shane Hmiel's bumper, never gaining enough to take the lead for good.
Then Vickers knew he had to make a move.
"I realized, hey, it's time to go," he said.
Vickers made the decisive pass on Lap 181, then held on to win the Kroger 200 on Saturday night for his first Busch series victory.
At 19, Vickers is the youngest competitor in NASCAR's three major national series.
Hmiel and Vickers practically ran side by side most of the last 30 laps on the .686-mile Indianapolis Raceway Park track. Vickers finally passed Hmiel for the lead with 20 of 200 laps to go and held on in his Chevrolet.
"Shane's a good racer. We raced hard," Vickers said. "He was cutting me off. He was doing what he had to do. ... I was trying to push him up. It was an awesome race."
Vickers beat Jason Keller by 2.296 seconds. Stacy Compton, involved in a wreck on Lap 20, came back to finish third. Hmiel was involved in a last-lap incident with Scott Wimmer and finished fourth. Wimmer came in 12th.
MARIO ANDRETTI GP: Bruno Junqueira earned his second straight pole at Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wis., and today seeks his first Champ Car win of the year.
Junqueira led qualifying with a lap of 1 minute, 43.703 seconds on the 4.048-mile road course. Newman/Haas teammate Sebastien Bourdais, a rookie, qualified second in 1:44.242. Patrick Carpentier used his last lap to jump into third at 1:44.306.
Junqueira continued to dominate at the site of his first CART victory, in 2001. He topped every practice and his run Friday at 1:43.917 also would have earned the pole.
GERMAN GRAND PRIX: Juan Pablo Montoya earned his first pole of the F1 season at Hockenheim, leading a 1-2 for Williams-BMW in qualifying for today's race. Montoya was timed in 1:15.167 on the 2.84-mile Hockenheimring, .018 seconds ahead of teammate Ralf Schumacher. Schumacher's brother, five-time world champ Michael, was sixth in his Ferrari.
NMPA HALL OF FAME: Darrell Waltrip and Harry Gant will be inducted into the National Motorsports Press Association's Hall of Fame at Darlington (S.C.) Raceway. The ceremony will be Aug.30, the day before the Southern 500.
FRAM-AUTOLITE NATIONALS: John Force earned his third No.1 qualifying position this year at Sonoma, Calif., for today's NHRA eliminations. Force (Funny Car) ran the quarter-mile in 4.814 seconds at 316.90 mph. Doug Kalitta led Top Fuel, setting an Infineon Raceway record of 4.531 at 325.77. Greg Anderson (Pro Stock) and Craig Treble (Pro Stock Motorcycle) also led.
EAST BAY RACEWAY: The track rescheduled its program for 2 p.m. today after rain washed it out Saturday. Gates open at noon for the program, which includes Open Wheel Modifieds, Limited Wingless Sprints, Late Models, Limited Late Models, Street Stocks and Mini Stocks.
