Extra Laps Could Put Vickers Back In Contention

Extra Laps Could Put Vickers Back In Contention

Before the 2013 season started, many NASCAR experts and analysts thought Brian Vickers would have the inside track to winning his second NASCAR Nationwide Series championship.
As the series heads into its second consecutive week off before heading to Texas Motor Speedway for the April 12 O’Reilly Auto Parts 300, the 2003 series champion has some catching up to do if he wants to prove those prognosticators right.
Vickers currently sits 11th in the standings, 63 points behind leader Sam Hornish Jr. and five points back of 10th-place driver Alex Bowman.
Vickers will get extra seat time when he fills in for the injured Denny Hamlin in the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota for at least four NASCAR Sprint Cup races, starting at Texas. The extra time behind the wheel could prove invaluable in his efforts to battle back into championship contention.
In Vickers’ championship season, he sat 12th in the standings after the first five races. After nine races that season, he was only ranked 11th. Therefore, mounting a comeback putting him back in contention is definitely not out of the question, but he’ll need stronger, more consistent showings if he is to be successful.
Outside of a pair of third-place finishes at Las Vegas and Bristol, Vickers’ best effort is a 17th at Phoenix. In the most recent race, at Auto Club, his No. 20 Dollar General Toyota experienced engine trouble that forced him to hang up his driving gloves after only 53 laps, leaving him with a 34th-place finish. In the season opener at Daytona he finished 19th, two laps down.
This is Vickers’ first full-time season in the NNS since 2003, when he posted three wins and 21 top-10 finishes.

Busch’s Teammate Kligerman Also Having Strong Season

Parker Kligerman, of Westport, Conn., might not have the resume or notoriety of his talented and sometimes controversial owner Kyle Busch, but that hasn’t stopped him from quietly building his own name this season.
Five races into the season, Kligerman has two top fives and three top 10s with a best finish of fourth at Auto Club, two weekends ago. He also has a fifth-place finish in the season opener at Daytona.
He’s currently tied for eighth in the standings with the past two years’ championship runner-up Elliott Sadler, 56 points behind leader Sam Hornish Jr.
Prior to this season, Kligerman appeared in 18 NNS races, with 12 starts during the 2010 season. In his only series visit to Texas Motor Speedway, he finished 34th after being sidelined by an accident on lap 180 in the 2010 race.
In five races at the 1.5-mile Texas oval in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series, he has two runner-up finishes and two other top-10 finishes.
Away from the spotlight of NASCAR’s national series, Kligerman recently provided scholarships to young, aspiring racers to assist them in fulfilling their dreams of becoming race car drivers. The event took place at the Norwalk (Conn.) Karting Association, where Kligerman honed his driving skills.

NASCAR Nationwide Series 

Both Turner Scott Motorsports and JR Motorsports tested at Texas Motor Speedway on April 1. Participants were Justin Allgaier, Kyle Larson and Nelson Piquet Jr. from TSM and Regan Smith, Brad Sweet and Kasey Kahne from JRM. … Full-time Turner Scott Motorsports NNS driver Piquet will be returning to the truck series this weekend at Martinsville piloting a fourth entry for the team. … Richard Childress Racing driver Brian Scott, who drives the No. 2 Chevrolet, got engaged to his longtime girlfriend Whitney Kay over the Easter holiday.