Birthdate: October 24, 1983
Hometown: Thomasville, NC
Residence: Ft Lauderdale, FL
Marital Status: Single

Brian Vickers was born 10/24/1983 in Thomasville, North Carolina, the heart of NASCAR country.

Vickers was the 2003 Busch Series champion, and at age 20, the youngest champion in any of NASCAR’s three top-tier series.

Besides driving the #32 ABF Toyota Camry in the NASCAR Nationwide Series for Team ABF, Vickers also drives the #83 Red Bull Toyota Camry for Team Red Bull in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series.

Vickers began running go-karts in 1994, winning 80 races and three championships in the World Karting Association. 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, Vickers 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.

In 2001, Vickers made his NASCAR Nationwide Series debut at the GNC Live Well 250 in the #29 owned by his father, Clyde Vickers. Brian qualified 30th but finished 37th after a crash. Vickers ran three more races that season, his best finish a 25th at North Carolina Speedway.

In 2002, Vickers began running the Nationwide Series in his father’s #40 Dodge Intrepid. He drove in 21 races, and his best finish was 7th at the Hardee’s 250, his only top-ten of the season.

In 2003, Vickers replaced Ricky Hendrick in the #5 GMAC Chevrolet, owned by Hendrick Motorsports. Vickers won the Nationwide Series championship by 14 points over David Green, becoming the youngest champion in the history of the series at age 20.

Vickers made his NASCAR Cup debut at the 2003 UAW-GM Quality 500, qualifying 20th and finishing 33rd in the #60 Haas Automation Chevy. He ran four more races that season in Hendrick’s #25 UAW Delphi Chevy, qualifying in the top-5 each time, but posting only one top-20 finish.

In 2004, Vickers ran the #25 in the Cup series full-time, carrying sponsorship from Ditech and GMAC. He won two poles, had four top-tens, and finished third to Brendan Gaughan and Kasey Kahne for Rookie of the Year.

The next season, Vickers won the Sprint Open exhibition race, which qualified him for the annual All-Star Challenge, in which he finished third. Vickers finished the year 17th in Cup points, scoring 10 top-tens, including his then career best finish of second at the Pocono 500. He also returned to the Nationwide Series in a limited capacity in 2005, driving in six races, and finishing third at Watkins Glen.

The 2006 season, statistically, was Vickers’s best yet. Vickers finished 7th in the Daytona 500, gathered nine top-tens, and got his first victory at the UAW Ford 500 at Talladega Superspeedway.

However, the season was marred by conflicts within Hendrick Motorsports. On June 25, Vickers announced that he would leave Hendrick and drive for the new Team Red Bull team in 2007. In the UAW-Ford 500, Vickers was running third when he bumped teammate Jimmie Johnson on the last lap, causing both Johnson (who was second), and Dale Earnhardt, Jr., the leader, to spin out. Vickers went on to score his first victory.

Johnson was livid with Vickers, and both he and his crew chief Chad Knaus questioned Vickers’s motives with the bump, with Knaus stating that Vickers had “run out of talent” prior to wrecking his teammate.

However, both Johnson and Vickers had a long discussion about what had happened and decided that it was best to move on. This was seen when Vickers came to congratulate Johnson and Johnson gave him a hug when Johnson won the Nextel Cup championship at the Ford 400.

In 2007, Vickers drove the #83 Red Bull Toyota Camry for a new team, Team Red Bull. His new crew chief for 2007 was Doug Richert, who spent the last three seasons with Greg Biffle and won a championship with Dale Earnhardt. His new teammate at Red Bull was A.J. Allmendinger, driver of the #84 Red Bull Toyota Camry for Team Red Bull.

The 2007 season started out poorly when Vickers sustained a blown tire during his qualifying race for the Daytona 500. The next week the team regrouped, however, and scored a 10th place finish in their first outing, the Auto Club 500, which was coincidentally Toyota’s first top 10 in the Sprint Cup series. Two weeks later Vickers led Toyota’s first lap in the Cup series at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

On May 27, 2007, Vickers gave Toyota its first ever top five in Coca-Cola 600. Toyota brought a new engine to Lowe’s, and Vickers showed its potential and surprised many by leading more than 70 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 incident. This was a saving grace, as it allowed the #83 car to stay on the lead lap, albeit off the pace and out of contention for the win. Crew chief Doug Richert managed to salvage the race through pit strategy, enabling Vickers to score a fifth place finish.

As he enters the 2008 NASCAR Nationwide Series, Brian Vickers has captured three wins, 16 top-fives, and 31 top-10 finishes in 80 Nationwide Series starts.