Brian Vickers pulls off surprise victory in Cup race at Loudon
July 14, 2013
By Reid Spencer
NASCAR Wire Service
LOUDON, N.H.--Surprise!
Part-time
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver Brian Vickers has made the most of his
stint in Michael Waltrip Racing’s No. 55 Toyota.
In
a green-white-checkered-flag finish, Vickers sped away from Kyle Busch
in overtime and took the checkered flag .582 seconds ahead
of Busch to win Sunday’s Camping World RV Sales 301 at New Hampshire
Motor Speedway.
The
third victory of Vickers’ career was his first since August 2009. Jeff
Burton ran third, followed by pole sitter Brad Keselowski
and Aric Almirola. Series leader Jimmie Johnson, whose qualifying time
was disallowed because of a ride-height violation on Friday, rallied to
finish sixth.
Kevin
Harvick, Carl Edwards, Matt Kenseth and Jeff Gordon completed the top
10. Tony Stewart led 84 laps but ran out of fuel on the
next-to-last circuit and finished 26th.
Stewart
was leading and in full fuel-conservation mode when contact between the
Chevys of Paul Menard and Jeff Gordon sent Gordon spinning
in Turn 2 on Lap 258. NASCAR called the 11th caution of the race because of the accident, leaving Stewart and Busch to restart side-by-side on Lap 263.
Stewart
held the top spot for 24 laps, but Vickers shoed his muscle late in the
race, passed Kyle Busch for second on Lap 283 and powered
past Stewart on the frontstretch four laps later. Vickers was cruising
toward his first victory in four years, when NASCAR called a caution on
Lap 297 of 301 and sent the race to overtime.
But the caution only forestalled Vickers’ triumph for one extra lap, as he beat Busch to the finish in a two-lap Sprint.
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