Vickers wins, Busch tumbles

Genius, daring or just plain lucky? How do you rate the fuel-mileage gamble Brian Vickers and crew chief Ryan Pemberton took in winning Sunday's race at Michigan?

It made for an interesting day with several subplots (including Vickers making another comment about Kyle Busch -- more on that later).

Vickers entered the day 96 points out of 12th with a month left until the Chase field is set. It wasn't going to be easy but it was possible for him to climb into the top 12. Then came the gamble.

A caution for rain opened pit road with 51 laps to go -- a few laps outside the normal fuel window -- but Vickers and others pitted. This would be their last stop. If it backfired and he ran out of fuel -- as Jimmie Johnson (33rd) and Mark Martin (31st) did -- he would finish around 30th and his Chase hopes would be in jeopardy.

"You put a stake in the ground,’’ Pemberton said the pit decision. “We’re either out of it, completely out of the Chase or we’re going to win the race. You talk about a sickening feeling.’’

The gamble paid off in ways they couldn't have imagined. Vickers won but with Martin running out of fuel and falling 21 spots, Vickers is now 12 points behind Martin for the final Chase spot with 3 races left.

Just think of this, if Martin fails to make the Chase and Busch does also, you could have two of the winningest drivers during the season not make the Chase. Of course some people will want to change the rules to create a wildcard spot for the top winner not in the Chase. Yet, you'd have to question if NASCAR ever did that. Come on, these guys had 26 races to get into the Chase. If they don't make it then, they don't deserve to be in it.

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Kyle Busch finished 23rd and fell to 15th in the season standings. He's 70 points out of 12th. He still could do it but you really begin to wonder if this is a Chase-caliber team. He has two top-10 finishes in the last 11 races. At least for him it appears he's headed for a Nationwide title.

As if things couldn't get worse enough for Busch, Vickers added his two cents Sunday. Vickers was asked about the confrontation they had after Saturday's Nationwide race (Busch parked in front of Vickers' car, went to it and yelled at Vickers as he sat in the car) and if there was any carry over to Sunday. This is what Vickers said:

"You know, there's some people that you meet in life that are just going to do stupid things. You just learn to accept it. You just don't let it bother you.You have patience. You just live life and run your race.

"Yesterday was ridiculous. It was unnecessary. In a lot of ways, I feel sorry for Kyle that he is that angry about stuff, something so small. I hiope that he can get past it. I don't have any hard feelings. I'm ready to just go race. That's the way I approached today.''

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Dale Earnhardt Jr. finished third, his best finish since placing second at Talladega in late April. Some will say that he only finished this high because this was a fuel-mileage race but that would be grossly missing things. He's been running better the last few weeks. This was the same car he used at Indy when he ran well (and that car was the first crew chief Lance McGrew had built for this team -- McGrew has another new car ready for Atlanta).

Also it was Earnhardt who talked McGrew into making their final pit stop with 42 laps to go once they were in their fuel window. That's key beacause it shows how much Earnhardt is  thinking in the car -- something he's been accused in the past of not doing very well. There's still a lot of work ahead for this team, but you see parts of the puzzle coming together. Doesn't mean this team is ready to run in the top five or top 10 every week but there are signs this team is moving in the right direction.

Said Earnhart after the race: "We're getting better as a team. It's just really, really hard to be patient, be mindful and respectful of everybody, you know, just hold your tongue every once in a while. But we're working really hard. Never worked so hard torun third. I've won races working a whole lot easier than this. My team deserves a lot of credit.''

Also, Earnhardt moved up 4 spots in the standings to 21st. He's 76 points behind 20th-place Casey Mears.

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An interesting thing during the race: Twice NASCAR told drivers who faked entering the pits to fall back a spot or two. Cup series director John Darby explained to me that they weren't being penalized but that they were being put in their natural position. What that means is that when Joey Logano and Carl Edwards faked coming to pit road on different times, they came back up on the track and went back to their original spot. Thing is they had to speed up to get back to that postion. By moving down the track and faking the move, they slowed down and others went by. NASCAR put them where they should have blended back up into  the track. Logano lost one spot. I think Edwards was about the same. Darby told me this happens at time, although it was the first time I could recall it happening or that two drivers were re-positioned. Something else for drivers to be aware of in case they decide to fake going to pit road.

QUICK HITS

# Jay Frye, general manager for Red Bull, said the team intends to sign Brian Vickers to a contract extension. It's been said for a couple of months that Red Bull would do so but nothing has happened yet, creating some questions about Vickers' future. "We certainly don't want him to go anywhere except right where he's at,'' Frye said.

# Tony Stewart finished 17th _ his first finish outside the top 10 since the Coca-Cola 600 on Memorial Day weekend _ but he was still the first driver to clinch a spot in the title Chase.

# NASCAR took the engines from 11 cars back to the R&D center for their annual testing to see how the engine makes compare. They took the engines from the cars of Jeff Gordon, Tony Stewart, Clint Bowyer, Juan Pablo Montoya, Brian Vickers, David Reutimann, Denny Hamlin, Carl Edwards, Greg Biffle, Sam Hornish Jr. and Elliott Sadler.

# Roush Fenway Racing went winless in the Michigan Cup races for the first time since 2001.

# Sam Hornish Jr. finished fifth two weeks after placing a career-high fourth at Pocono.

# Michigan International Speedway announced before the race it will lower prices for all of its tickets for next year.

# Brian Vickers gave Toyota its first Cup victory at Michigan.

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