BRIAN VICKERS
DRIVER, NO. 83
TEAM RED BULL

Birthdate: 10/24/83
Birthplace: Thomasville, N.C.
Resides: Charlotte, N.C.
Background: Red Bull Racing Team, driver, No. 83 (2008); 38th in NASCAR Sprint Cup driver standings (2007); Sprint Cup race winner at Talladega (2006); All-Star Open race winner (2005); Sprint Cup five-time pole winner (2004-2008); NASCAR Nationwide Series champion (youngest NASCAR champion at age 20) (2003); USAR Hooters Pro Cup rookie of the year (2000); three-time World Karting Association champion.

BRIAN BY THE NUMBERS

Red Bull Racing Team’s No. 83 showed flashes of brilliance in its first season, as its occupant, North Carolina-bred Brian Vickers, put one top-five and four top-10 finishes on the board. The record books show that BV was the first to reserve Toyota a space in both statistical categories. Particularly impressive was BV’s fifth-place effort at Lowe’s Motor Speedway.

The brilliance is back in season No. 2. Vickers earned Red Bull Racing Team’s best-ever showing when he finished second in June at Pocono, and he earned the organization’s first pole in August at Michigan.

DEVELOPING VICKERS

Vickers’ skill showed at an early age — first in karts, then Allison Legacy cars, then late model stocks and into his days in the Hooters Pro Cup Series, where in 2000 he won two races and was named rookie of the year.

In 2001, Vickers debuted in the Nationwide Series and in 2002 made 21 starts as the only rookie driver with an independent team, driving father Clyde’s No. 40. He graduated from Trinity High School the same evening he found himself the highest-qualifying Nationwide rookie down I-85 at Lowe’s Motor Speedway.

Vickers was named the driver of Hendrick Motorsports’ No. 5 Nationwide machine for 2003 and pinned it straight to the championship at age 20, becoming the youngest champion in NASCAR history.

The title earned Vickers full-time Sprint Cup status in Hendrick’s No. 25 car for 2004. Since then, he has racked up five poles and 14 top-five finishes midway through 2008. The big breakthrough came in the fall of 2006 when he scored his first Cup win at Talladega.

Vickers, who’s quite the businessman, prefers public transportation and the subway. To keep fit for 140-degree cockpit heat, he bikes mountains and country roads and kayaks and plays golf.

In the Bullpen with Brian Vickers

Q. If you were Brian France, what rule gets the ax?
The COT.

Q. Do you feel any safer in the COT, compared to the car that died at Homestead?
No. The roof is higher, but the roof height was never an issue for me. The seat being farther over? I feel like I’m just as close to the roll bars now as I was then. I don’t know where those four inches went. They went somewhere, but my elbow hits the roll bars just as easily as it did in the old car.

Q. You’re constantly on the go. What’s your favorite means of transportation?
The train. I’m a big fan of public transportation and the benefits from an economic to an environmental level. Also, I just like trains. That’s all I take in New York, the subway.

Q. Would you say you live a “green” lifestyle? You do own a hybrid car.
I’ve become more and more passionate about the environment and have become educated on the subject. Especially in today’s world, it’s become a hotter and hotter topic. It’s a good cause. A cleaner world for everyone … you’re going to have a hard time telling me that’s a bad thing. What would it hurt to have cleaner air to breathe or cleaner water to drink? What’s the downside? I see none.

Q. Last book you read?
“Fierce Conversations.” (The full title is “Fierce Conversations: Achieving Success at Work and in Life One Conversation at a Time.”)

Q. What does your “previously recorded” TiVo list look like?
The shows that I can’t miss I have on my computer. I download them off iTunes because I travel so much. If it’s that important and I can’t miss it, it being on my TiVo doesn’t do my any good.

Q. So you’re not into “Survivor” or “Smarter than a 5th Grader?”
No. Not at all. Not in the slightest. I like educational stuff. Non-fiction. News. Discovery Channel.

Q. If you could award a second Sprint Cup date to a race track, who gets it?
From a personal driving standpoint, I enjoy Darlington. Darlington should have a second race. But from a business or entertainment standpoint, which is what NASCAR is, I would award a second date to Las Vegas. Maybe Chicago.

Q. When you’re in New York, do you ever find yourself missing life in North Carolina?
Definitely not the food. The food in New York is amazing. There are even Southern barbeque restaurants in New York. You can get North Carolina food. The slowness of North Carolina is what I miss, how quiet it is in a small town, whether it be Thomasville or Charlotte. And, of course, I always miss my family.

Q. But life isn’t bad in NYC, either.
The lifestyle, the public transportation. I don’t have to own a car. I can go anywhere, walk anywhere. The business, the activity, the friends. It’s a great town.