is an
American NASCAR driver.
Vickers, from
Thomasville, North Carolina , was the
2003 Busch series champion, the youngest NASCAR Series champion in history, at age 20. Vickers drives the#25 Ditech.com / GMAC
Chevrolet for
Rick Hendrick . Vickers has 77 Nextel cup starts and 9 top tens and 3 top fives. He has a career best finish of 2nd. He won the Nextel Open in
2005 and finished 3rd in the same year's
Nextel All-Star Challenge .
On
July 26 ,
2005 , Vickers appeared on ''
The Daily Show With Jon Stewart '', during which he was interviewed by
Samantha Bee regarding the "new face of NASCAR."
Vickers began running go-karts in 1994. Over the next three years, he won eighty races in the
World Karting Association , and won three championships. In 1998, he moved to the
Allison Legacy Series , and won five races during the course of the season. After competing in the NASCAR
Dodge Weekly Racing Series in 1999, he moved to
USAR ProCup , winning Rookie of the Year and two races in 2000. The next season, he won five more races and finished second in points. That same year, he made his Busch Series debut at the
GNC Live Well 250 in the #29 owned by his father. He qualified 30th but finished 37th after a crash. He ran three more races that season, his best finish a 25th at
North Carolina Speedway .
In
2002 , Vickers began running the Busch Series in the #40
Dodge Intrepid owned by his family. He drove in 21 races, his best finish being a 7th at the
Hardee's 250 , his only top-ten of the season. Because of a lack funding, Vickers was preparing to shut his team down, when he was called to replace
Ricky Hendrick in the #5
GMAC Chevrolet . Vickers won three races in 2003, and won the Busch Series championship by 14 points over
David Green , becoming the youngest champion in the history of the series. Vickers did not run the Busch Series again until
2005 , driving for Hendrick in sixth races, his best finish a third at
Watkins Glen International . He will continue to drive the #57
Ore-Ida /
Mountain Dew Chevy in
2006 .
Vickers made his Cup debut at the
2003 UAW-GM Quality 500 , qualifying 20th and finishing 33rd in the #60
Haas Automation Chevy for Hendrick Motorsports. He ran four more races that season in Hendrick's #25, qualifying in the top-5 each time, but posting only one top-20 finish. He moved into the 25 full-time in
2004 , winning two poles and finishing runner-up to
Kasey Kahne for
Rookie Of The Year . In
2005 , he improved to 17th in points, posting ten top-tens. He also beat out Bliss to win the Nextel All-Star challenge qualifier Nextel Open in 2005. So far in
2006 , he has two top-ten finishes.
