Vickers appeared to have a dominant car in the Sprint Showdown last weekend, only to come up short and fail to capture one of the two spots that transferred into the All-Star Race.
For nearly half of Sunday night’s Coca-Cola 600, Vickers appeared again ready to contend for his first Sprint Cup Series victory at the track.
He led four times for 61 of the first 181 laps and traded the lead with Kurt Busch, who had led 64 of the first 200 circuits.
But trouble struck again. The left-rear wheel came off of Vickers’ No. 83 Toyota as he entered Turn 1 on Lap 185 and Vickers slammed into the wall. There was no hope of repairing the car and he was credited with a 42nd-place finish.
“We’re not really sure exactly why,’’ said Vickers, who finished 42nd. “It started vibrating several times for the first couple runs. The last two runs the car was picking up a left rear vibration. The left rear wheel was loose, but it was staying intact. We’re not really sure exactly what was causing it but in the last time, we picked up the vibration and the wheel just came off the car.’‘
It was an embarrassing moment for Vickers’ crew, which took home $70,000 on May 15 for winning the pit crew competition.
“They’re good,’’ Vickers said, “but we’ve got to get to the bottom of this for sure.’‘
“Such a fast car, so so fast,” Vickers said. “I really hate it for everybody.”
Vickers later added, “Obviously we’ve been the fastest car here.”
He said he doesn’t know what happened, or where the vibrations came from, but said that would be a priority to figure out.
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