Brian Vickers appeared at Bridgewater's Commerce Bank Ballpark to make his second annual appearance at the Somerset Patriots NASCAR Night.  He headed up to the press box, and I was able to ask him about the latest rumors that had him going to Red Bull Racing or Robert Yates, and his thoughts about the Busch Series.

About Toyota coming into the sport: "I think it's great.  The more support we have from the more manufacturers, the better.  It's irrelevant who it is.  With NASCAR, I guess one of the rules is they have to produce the cars they race in Cup in America, which Toyota does.  Those are the requirements, that they make most of their cars in America.  You've got Chevy, Ford, Dodge and now Toyota, and it's only going to bring more attention to the sport.  If more want to come, I think it'll be even better."
 
About backlash from the NASCAR fanbase about Toyota's foreign roots: "There's no way to predict that, but I don't think so.  You look in the parking lot at a race or anywhere else, and there's cars from every manufacturer.  There's always been a lot of support in NASCAR from the big three manufacturers, and everybody's always going to respect that.  But the fact is, Toyota employs a lot of people here, and if they want to be here, they deserve to be here."

About Red Bull and Yates Rumors: "Who we've talked to is private.  We're in the process right now...the only thing that's going on is Hendrick Motorsports and I are trying to figure out what we're going to do, and right now it looks like we're both going to look at other options next year for the betterment of both of us."

About being a hot commodity: "It could potentially be a good position.  Right now, we're focused on handling this thing the best we can with Hendrick Motorsports and we're looking at other options.  What we decide to do is going to be held private until the time is right, and then we'll announce it."

About nearly getting his first win at Talladega: "We were so close.  There's been so many times where we've been so close to getting that first win.  It's going to take a little bit of luck, and we're going to have to keep working hard and doing what we've been doing.  It's not going to be easy."

About being a part-time Buschwhacker: "It's good seat time, good practice, good experience.  There's been a lot of talk about the Buschwhackers, and I think it's good for the Busch Series for Cup guys to be there.  I learned a lot as a Busch driver when I raced against the Cup guys.  Should they be racing for the championship? I don't know about that, I wouldn't agree with that.  I think the Busch championship should be won by a Busch driver, and Busch drivers only.  But I think it's a good thing that they're there."

About the presence of Buschwhackers during his championship year: "I didn't consider it a problem, I considered it an opportunity.  There was a lot of Cup guys there; Matt Kenseth won the championship that year and I had to race him.  I don't remember how many races he ran, but he ran a lot of them - he ran the majority of the companion events, and I had to race him and a lot of the other guys.  It was a great opportunity to race against them, and I learned a lot."

About possibly getting hurt in a Busch car: "It's definitely a thought, it does cross your mind.  You keep it in the back of your mind that you have to be as safe as possible, but hey, we're race car drivers.  It's just like how a basketball player wants to get out on the practice court every day and get better, there's a chance he could get hurt while he's practicing.  It's the same for us when we go race Busch cars, there's a chance we could get hurt.  But there's something to gain there.  Does the gain outweigh the risk?  I think so.  But there is still a risk." 

Visit the home page for an audio clip of the interview.  

Mike Ashmore is a baseball writer for the Hunterdon County Democrat.  Visit nj.com/hunterdon for more

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