Vickers, who turned 20 on October 24, has been racing half his life. Everything he did, starting with go-carts at age 10, was planned and well executed to get precisely where he is. And that's a tribute to the support of his parents, Ramona and Clyde, who own CV Products, a racing parts distributorship in Thomasville, North Carolina. On his way up, young Vickers raced Allison Legacy cars, Late Model Stocks, and Hooters ProCup before making his debut in the Busch Series in mid-'01. He's a three-time World Karting Association national champion and a winner in everything he has raced.
Vickers broadened his experience by racing different types of cars on a variety of tracks. He worked on all of his cars after school, receiving minimum wage from his father for spending money. "I drove for free, for the experience," Vickers says. "I would have done it all for nothing, I loved it that much."
Unlike many of the current top guns who aren't from the South, Vickers is a North Carolina Tar Heel, a native of Thomasville, a manufacturing town of about 20,000 widely known for its Thomasville line of furniture. Vickers may change the fact that Thomasville doesn't have a top NASCAR native son to embrace, although it has staked claim to Winston Cup Champions Terry and Bobby Labonte, transplants from Texas, who have lived there most of their big-league careers.
Vickers has known the Labontes all his life. That tie made 46-year-old Terry Labonte's victory in the final Southern 500 on Labor Day weekend at Darlington, completing a Hendrick sweep, sweeter for Vickers. Bobby Labonte purchased the Vickers' home several years ago, and the family moved into Terry's neighborhood. Vickers, an honor graduate of Trinity High, attended school with Terry and Kim Labonte's and Patti and Kyle Petty's kids. "Terry used to take me and neighborhood kids to his farm across town," Vickers recalls fondly. "We'd tie ropes to the back of his truck, and he'd pull us on inner tubes and skis. Now we're teammates." Labonte and Vickers' other Hendrick mates have given him sound advice as he moves up: "Have patience, keep your head on straight, don't get an attitude, and seek the respect of fellow drivers."
Vickers admonishes some of the younger set's misbehavior that resulted in headline incidents this year. "I was raised to have values," he says. "Some people weren't, and it shows. I don't agree with the way some of the drivers have acted, and deep down they probably don't either.
"I prefer to be aggressive, race hard but clean. I'm not going to let anybody run over me or disrespect me. If they have a problem with that, I've raced long enough to know how they race, regardless of how that may be. I treat people the way I want to be treated-on the race track and in life . . . I like to pick, play, and joke a lot, but when it comes down to serious stuff, I know how to keep my mouth shut."
I don't know how good Vickers is or how he will stack up next year with the remarkable crop of twenty-somethings, no doubt an inspiration to him. His goals, far exceeded in Busch, are the same: Learn, keep the fenders on, and finish. To match his Busch record would be unreal, he says, and he's probably right. Through 29 races in 2003, Hendrick's Winston Cup teams had won 115 Winston Cup races and five championships in 20 seasons. But the No. 25 team has been the family's black sheep, winning only twice since 1991 and finishing in the Top-5 in points once. The team won in 2000 with Jerry Nadeau, and, rallied by crewchief Peter Sospenzo, again this year with Nemechek. It's a challenge for Vickers, but I am amazed at what the young lions can do; Vickers seems to be no exception.
At the conclusion of our chat, Vickers invited me to stop by his truck at the track and say hi. His invite was a first among the whiz kids whom I've written articles about in the recent past. Maybe it was fraternal, because, with a measure of pride, Thomasville is my hometown, too.