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Brian Lee Vickers (born October 24, 1983) Brian Vickers Career Statistics is an American former professional stock car racing driver. He last drove the No. 14 Chevrolet SS for Stewart–Haas Racing as an interim driver in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series for the injured Tony Stewart. He won the 2003 NASCAR Busch Series championship driving for Hendrick Motorsports. Vickers was also among the first series of full-time drivers for Toyota after the manufacturer first entered the Sprint Cup Series.
Vickers' career has been marred by a series of health issues since 2010 that have included Thrombus and heart problems.
Vickers made his Busch Series debut in the 2001 GNC Live Well 250 at Milwaukee Mile in the No. 29 car, owned by his father Clyde Vickers 's BLV Motorsports team. He qualified thirtieth and finished thirty-seventh after a crash. Vickers ran three more races that season; his best finish was 25th at North Carolina. In 2002, Vickers began running the Busch Series in his father's No. 40 Dodge Intrepid. He drove in twenty-one races, competing for Rookie of the Year honors; his best finish was seventh in the Hardee's 250 at Richmond, his only top ten of the season on his way to finishing thirtieth in series points.
On May 27, 2007, Vickers gave Toyota its first top-five ever in the Coca-Cola 600. Toyota brought a new engine to Charlotte, and Vickers showed its potential and surprised many by leading more than seventy laps of the race and having the dominant car. However, towards the end of the race, the power steering of the vehicle began to fail and eventually ceased operation completely. The team's luck continued to decline as Vickers soon blew a tire and slid into the turn four wall. Immediately as Vickers entered pit road, the caution flew for debris on the track; supposedly from his car. This was a saving grace, as it allowed the No. 83 car to stay on the lead lap, albeit off the pace and out of contention for the win. Richert managed to salvage the race through pit strategy, enabling Vickers to score a fifth-place finish.
Late in the 2007 season, Richert was fired from Team Red Bull and replaced by Randy Cox, who was formerly employed on Team Red Bull's Research and Development team. Vickers struggled for the remainder of the season as Team Red Bull began to focus on developing its Car of Tomorrow program, which would start competing full-time the next season. The resulting inattention to its "current car" program severely hampered Vickers' efforts during the remaining races of that platform. It was another problem in a long line for the entire Red Bull organization, as Vickers finished thirty-eighth in points and failed to qualify for thirteen races while his teammate Allmendinger missed nineteen races and finished forty-third. One of Vickers' failures to make the race was due to a disqualification from the lineup of the 2007 Lenox Industrial Tools 300, after his car failed post-qualifying inspection three times. Overall, Vickers scored one top five and five top tens in 23 starts with an average finish of 25.1, along with 5 DNFS.
Vickers' pit crew won the 2008 Pit Crew Challenge during the All-Star weekend. Vickers went on the next weekend and led sixty-one laps in the Coca-Cola 600 before he lost his left rear wheel and crashed about halfway through the race. Vickers then followed up with a second-place run at Pocono to Kasey Kahne. Vickers made every race that season in 2008, scoring three top fives and six top tens with an average finish of 20.7 while finishing an improved nineteenth in the standings.
Vickers' season began with controversy in the Daytona 500. Dale Earnhardt Jr. got a run on the backstretch to the inside of Vickers, but Vickers blocked. Earnhardt Jr. clipped the left rear fender, getting Vickers loose, sending him into the field. Vickers said after the race that Earnhardt should have been black-flagged. Earnhardt later stated that he was unaware that Vickers was a lap down, and that both were fighting for the Beneficiary rule. Earnhardt later apologized.
Vickers won the pole for the Auto Club 500, but had to go to the rear because of an engine change. Vickers went on to finish tenth.
Vickers ran in the top five all day during the Kobalt Tools 500. In the final laps, Vickers was chasing down Kurt Busch for the win, but Robby Gordon blew a tire to bring out the caution, allowing Jeff Gordon and Carl Edwards to catch Vickers on the restart. Vickers finished fifth.
Vickers won his second pole of the season for the Crown Royal 400 at Richmond. Vickers would finish fifteenth in that race.
On June 10, 2009, Team Red Bull conducted a promotional pit stop in New York City. Brian pulled the No. 83 Red Bull Toyota to the side of the road, and the team changed four tires in Times Square with traffic still moving around them.
Vickers won his third pole of the season for the Lifelock 400 at Michigan. Vickers never led a lap in the race and earned a ninth-place finish.
Vickers won his fourth pole of the season for the Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Sonoma. Vickers finished sixteenth in that race.
Vickers won his fifth pole of the season for the Lifelock.com 400 at Chicagoland. Vickers finished seventh in the race.
Vickers won his sixth pole of the season at Michigan. He also won the pole for the Carfax 250. In the Nationwide race, he and his former teammate Kyle Busch were racing hard for the lead on the final lap, allowing the NASCAR rookie Brad Keselowski to pass both of them for the win. After the race, Busch confronted Vickers on pit road, accusing him of rough driving.
The next day, Vickers won the Carfax 400 from the pole for his second career Sprint Cup victory, Red Bull's first victory, and Toyota's first victory at Michigan. He did so after a late race gamble of not coming in to pit during the race's final caution. On the final restart, Vickers was first and Jimmie Johnson was second. With a little over forty laps to go, Vickers stayed behind Johnson most of the time, trying to save fuel. With just over three laps to go, Johnson ran out of fuel, while Vickers barely had enough to claim the win. This victory was also the first one for Red Bull Racing and the first for Red Bull's sponsorship in NASCAR.
Two days after the win, Vickers signed a multi-year extension with Red Bull.
After finishing seventh in the Chevy Rock and Roll 400 at Richmond, Vickers clinched a spot in the 2009 Chase for the Sprint Cup. He would finish twelfth in the standings, his highest points finish to date. His six poles in 2009 were second to Mark Martin's seven for most poles of the year. Vickers also had four top fives and thirteen top tens with an average finish of 17.3.
On May 21, 2010, six days after being released from a hospital for the aforementioned blood clot issue, it was announced that Vickers would miss the remainder of the season. His replacements were Casey Mears, Reed Sorenson, Mattias Ekstrom, Boris Said, and Kasey Kahne. Vickers' abbreviated 2010 season consisted of three top-tens in eleven races.
]]At Sonoma, Vickers started in 34th place in his 3rd ride for MWR in the No. 55 Toyota. He led 4 laps and had a very fast racecar, even though he had to start at the rear of the field because Jason Bowles had qualified the car as Vickers was racing at Road America. While his MWR teammates Martin Truex Jr. and Clint Bowyer ended up in the top ten, with Truex winning, Vickers ended up in thirteenth place.
Vickers led 63 laps in the Nationwide Series race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway but finished second to Kyle Busch. Ironically, the next day, Vickers held off Busch to win his third career Sprint Cup Series race during the 2013 Camping World RV Sales 301 at New Hampshire after making a late race pass on Tony Stewart, and retaining the lead on a green-white-checkered finish as Stewart ran out of fuel. For Vickers, this broke a 75-race winless streak (not counting the races he had missed in 2010). On August 13, 2013, Vickers was announced as the full-time driver of the No. 55 for the 2014 and 2015 seasons; on August 19, it was announced that following the release of Mark Martin to substitute for the injured Tony Stewart, Vickers would drive the No. 55 in twelve of the season's final 13 races, the exception being Talladega, where Michael Waltrip will drive the car, as previously scheduled.
After the Federated Auto Parts 400 in early September, Vickers was determined to be one of the drivers involved in an attempt to manipulate the race so Michael Waltrip Racing teammate Martin Truex Jr. would earn a spot in the Chase for the Sprint Cup. The team was fined a record $300,000, and fifty championship points were deducted per car.
On October 14, 2013, it was announced that Vickers would be forced to sit out the rest of the season due to the discovery of a blood clot in his right calf, a similar issue to the one that caused him to sit out much of 2010; Elliott Sadler substituted for Vickers in the No. 55 Sprint Cup car in the final four races of the season.
Vickers' replacements in the 55 were team boss Michael Waltrip and MWR test driver Brett Moffitt. Before the 2015 Auto Club 400, it was announced that Vickers would again be sidelined because of more blood clots. While Vickers is sidelined, his sponsor on the 55 car would be Janssen Pharmaceutica and their brand of Rivaroxaban. His replacement would again be Moffitt. The same week, Vickers also announced he would be taking blood thinner medication and cannot race for at least three months. On April 28, MWR announced that David Ragan would drive the 55 for the rest of the season. Vickers did not run another race for the rest of 2015.
With his racing future uncertain, Vickers joined NASCAR on NBC as an analyst and worked selected Sprint Cup races on the network during the season.
He was married to Sarah Kellen (user of the alias Sarah Kensington), who is known for her alleged role as the "sex scheduler" in Jeffrey Epstein'
/ref> On April 14, 2025, it was announced that Vickers and Kellen had officially divorced after 10 years of marriage.
| † - Relieved Denny Hamlin |
| 2004 | Hendrick Motorsports | Chevrolet | 35 | 39 |
| 2005 | 28 | 21 | ||
| 2006 | 35 | 7 | ||
| 2007 | Team Red Bull | Toyota | DNQ | |
| 2008 | 23 | 12 | ||
| 2009 | 6 | 39 | ||
| 2010 | 22 | 15 | ||
| 2011 | 27 | 31 | ||
| 2014 | Michael Waltrip Racing | Toyota | 31 | 30 |
| 2016 | Stewart–Haas Racing | Chevrolet | 18 | 26 |
Season still in progress
Ineligible for series points
Despite being ineligible for Cup Series points that season, Vickers was also penalized 50 Cup Series points at fall Richmond for his team's involvement in a race manipulation scheme.
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