While riding in a van with Brian Vickers on the Hendricks Motorsports’ campus in 2004, the Nextel Cup rookie made a flip comment after passing a Pepsi stage where a fan was winning a million-dollar prize.
“Who could possibly live off of that?” Vickers asked.
All I could think of was what a smug S.O.B. he must be. Had this kid ever really worked a day in his life? Obviously not, if he couldn’t relate to the relevance of a million bucks to the average race fan. Vickers was 20 at that time. Certainly, his youth had to be taken into consideration. Couple that with Rick Hendrick’s impeccable sense of personnel and it seemed only fair to cut Vickers a break.
Halfway through his third Cup season with Hendrick, word started seeping that Vickers was Red Bull Racing’s new $4 million man. He left a lasting Hendrick experience by taking out his buddy and teammate Jimmie Johnson (not to mention NASCAR’s Most Popular Driver, Dale Earnhardt Jr.) on the closing lap at Talladega.
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