Brian Vickers and Ricky Hendrick, who saw the young driver's potential, reap benefits.
By BRANT JAMES
Published November 20, 2003
TAMPA - Just about the only thing that hasn't gone right for Brian Vickers lately made him wince as he sipped coffee in a Tampa restaurant on Wednesday.
A set of painful wisdom teeth had been bothering him since Sunday, one day after the 20-year-old captured the Busch Series driver's title at Homestead, becoming the youngest top-tier series champion in NASCAR history. In town for a NASCAR-sponsored media stop and three days from making it through the season-ending banquet in Orlando, Vickers' realization of what he had accomplished was setting in about as slowly as his pain medication.
"Every day I wake up it sinks in a little bit more," he said. "And it's not just good for me, it's good for Hendrick Motorsports and it's especially good for Ricky (Hendrick). He's the one who really stood up for me and made it happen."
Vickers' championship was a validation for Ricky Hendrick, the 23-year-old son of Hendrick Motorsports owner, Rick, who handpicked Vickers as his full-time replacement in the No.5 Chevrolet after retiring in September 2002 because of a shoulder injury. Hendrick tried several drivers in the car, including David Green, this season's runner-up to Vickers, but had been impressed by Vickers in an Atlanta Busch race in September 2002 and decided he was the future champion on a team featuring four-time Winston Cup champion Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson.
Deciding was one thing. Convincing his father was another.
"He needed a threat," Ricky Hendrick said. "(Rick Hendrick) had a guy picked out he knew the sponsors would like and a guy I think has a lot of talent, but I had a gut feeling with Brian and felt like I needed to stand up and get Brian in the car. It was a hard sell. My father was saying that he didn't have stats as good as some of these other guys and asked me if I thought he had what it takes to be a champion.
"I said, "He does, just listen to me. If I am going to be a part of the team I want to pick who I want, be it right, wrong or indifferent."'
Rick Hendrick succumbed.
Once Vickers got past the excruciating chore of talking out the situation with Green, a family friend, he was able to go about the task of driving and finished with three wins, 21 top 10s and a 14-point championship margin over Green, who had picked up a ride with Brewco Motorsports in the No.37 Pontiac.
Vickers will drive the No.25 Chevrolet full time in Nextel Cup for 2004 with Rick and Ricky Hendrick as co-owners.
The Tampa excursion was added to the week of Busch banquet activities because of this market's infatuation with the series. Tampa Bay was the second-ranked Busch market in the country in 2003 based on the average number of households tuning in per event, trailing Los Angeles. An average of 65,000 households tuned in to each of the 34 Busch events this year, a 3 percent increase from last year and a 97 percent increase from 2000.
With 134,00 households on average watching each Winston Cup event, Tampa Bay ranked third nationally in 2003 behind Atlanta (160,000) and Los Angeles (135,000).
