"My goals are still the same."

Team Red Bull’s debut season in the NASCAR series is half over. Time to speak to Brian Vickers about his personal interim result. In part one of the interview, he talks about goals and disappointments, his close victory in Charlotte, North Carolina and ducks on the racetrack.

Can you summarize the first half of the season in one sentence?

It’s been a rollercoaster ride full of some really high moments that give us momentum to charge forward into the next weekend, but also full of some pretty crappy moments that give us a reason to work even harder.

What examples for a “high” and for a “crappy” moment can you think of off the top of your head?

The worst moment was missing the Daytona 500 in February. I had raced in the Daytona 500 for the past three, so to miss out on it this year was a big blow. The best moment was leading 76 laps at Lowe’s Motor Speedway and finishing 5th despite losing our power steering.

What prevented you from getting your first victory for Team Red Bull there?

During the race, we lost our power steering, lost our starter, and then blew a right front tire. Other than that, we had the fastest car on the race track and could have won the race.

In some races you were the fastest Toyota in the field. With the established competition your Camry didn’t seem like it was up to the task …

The Toyota engine is a bit down on power. There have been a lot of races this year that have been really frustrating because you’ll have a car that handles really well, but you don’t have the necessary power to keep up with your competitors. You’re like a sitting duck when those cars come up behind and just whiz right by.

How did the “sitting duck” learn to run?

One of the good things about Toyota is that they have a really competitive NASCAR Craftsman Series Truck engine and just dominate that series. Last week they also won their first NASCAR Busch Series race, so we see them make progress. The engine we use in Cup is different than in the Truck and Busch Series, but it’s just a matter of time before Toyota catches up with their Cup program and we start having more competitive cars and winning races.

Your goal for the season, which was extremely ambitious for a new team in the NASCAR series, was to be amongst the top 20. You’re currently ranked 39th overall. Is modesty more in order now?

My goals are still the same. Do I want to be in the top 20 at the end of the season? Absolutely. But a more immediate goal for us is to break into the top 35 so we guarantee ourselves a starting spot in every race. We’re 20 races down in the season and we have 16 to go, so we really need to step up our performance. Our focus is making races and bringing home good finishes because that’s the only way we’re going to collect points and move up in the standings.