Brian Vickers Wins the Carfax 400

The racers ran out of gas at the end of Sunday’s Carfax 400 at Michigan International Speedway, just as they have at few other times this season, but fortunately for pole-sitter Brian Vickers it happened as he was heading to Victory Lane. The fuel management and timing of Jimmie Johnson wasn’t quite as precise on this day as he ended up running out of fuel for his race car with about two laps remaining of the scheduled 400 in this Sprint Cup Series competition. In fact, Johnson had been spending a lot of his race trying to conserve fuel for the final laps but he and his team missed the mark by a few laps. He happened to be in the lead at the time his fuel became a serious issue and had to turn onto pit road to get some gas. This was when the racer who had been dogging him all day, Brian Vickers, inherited the lead from Jimmie Johnson and then went on to take the victory ahead of Jeff Gordon in second and Dale Earnhardt Jr. in third.

Brian Vickers wins the Carfax 400

This Sprint Cup Series win is the second for Vickers in a career that appears to be on the rise, the first for Red Bull Racing and the first victory for Toyota on the pavement of Michigan International Speedway. A fine day for crew chief Ryan Pemberton as well, it was his decision to keep Vickers on the track in fuel conservation mode, which can be a risky call at times. This time it turned out to be the right decision this time, moving Vickers up to 13^th in the Sprint Cup Series standings and just twelve points out of 12^th place. This win puts him in great position to possibly make it to the Chase and you have to give the gentlemen credit for making the decision and having the balls to stand behind it. Brian Vickers should probably buy him dinner tonight, to show him how much he appreciates the hard choices that Ryan has to make, race after race.

Carl Edwards finished fourth in the Carfax 400; Sam Hornish Jr. had a strong day and finished fifth, while Casey Mears had a strong day and finished sixth. Joey Logano finished seventh, Clint Bowyer eighth, David Reutimann was ninth and Denny Hamlin rounded out the top ten in the Sprint Cup Series Carfax 400.

“Image: Zuma Press”