With a little help from your friends…
As Brian Vickers raced in a nip-and-tuck points battle with Kyle Bush to make the chase he was looking for help from anywhere. At one point Vickers made the call to his spotter Chris Lambert telling him; “Any friends you can make aware of our situation, I would appreciate it.” But who were the friends that Vickers was looking for?

“Any of them,” he said. “Any of the 42 he could get ahold of.”

It’s celebration time

After a tough battle over the last few months of the race season and an equally trying race to make the Chase cut, Brian Vickers turned his focus in a new direction following the Chevy Rock & Roll 400. “You know my focus right now is where I’m going out tonight, where the party is,” he said. “That’s where I’m trying to focus right now. Just get out and just move on from the past ten weeks, six weeks, man it’s been some stressful period in my life. But I’m just proud of the effort.”

When he response brought laughter he reiterated his seriousness. “I genuinely mean that” he said. “I’m going to party hard tonight. I’m not kidding”

A race is a race, a tire is a tire… 

After making the cut for his fist Chase, Juan Pablo Montoya was questioned about his all out aggressive nature when he first came into NASCAR from Formula One. “You’ve got to be aggressive when you need to be aggressive and you’ve got to be smart when you need to smart,” he said. “On a restart you’ve got to go when you’ve got to go. When it’s time to save car you’ve got to save the car.

“You know that saving the car and saving the breaks and the tires, I’m not used to that,” he said. “I was like flat shot all the time.”

That about sums it up

Because Tony Stewart was a teammate of Denny Hamlin prior to this year, he was asked if he knew how Hamlin felt after picking up his first win on his home track at Richmond. “I think he’s happy,” Stewart said. “Rocket science.”

Dream a little dream

In his first year as driver owner, Tony Stewart managed to not only get himself into the Chase but teammate Ryan Neuman. However, when Stewart was asked if he could have imagined such a scenario in his wildest dreams the response was far from expected. “Oh dude, you’ve got to see some of my dreams,” Stewart said. “That doesn’t even scratch the surface for my wildest dreams. No it’s not even close to my wildest dreams.”

The compassion of an older brother

After his younger brother Kyle came eight points shy of making the Chase cut, Kurt Busch said he sought out his sibling. “When I did hear he didn’t make it I slid down and sat next to my car and thought for a moment what eight points means in this sport,” he said. “I was on the fortunate side of winning the championship by eight points back in 2004 and to see my little brother not make it, it’s devastating. You always hope you have the most bullets in the gun for the Busch family.”

Seeding of NASCAR Chase drivers

1. Mark Martin 5040 points
2. Tony Stewart 5030
3. Jimmie Johnson 5030
4. Denny Hamlin 5020
5. Kasey Kahne 5020
6. Jeff Gordon 5010
7. Kurt Busch 5010
8. Brian Vickers 5010
9. Carl Edwards 5000
10. Ryan Newman 5000
11. Juan Pablo Montoya 5000
12. Greg Biffle 5000