Ready, Aim, Fire: Brian Vickers is still hot about Kyle Busch getting so angry at Michigan

  Brian Vickers: versus Kyle Busch? (Photo: Toyota Motorsports)
  

   By Mike Mulhern
   mikemulhern.net

   BRISTOL, Tenn.
   Kyle Busch was an easy target here Friday.
   And Brian Vickers took aim.
   The setting: Busch and Vickers were battling for the lead and the win the final miles at Michigan in last Saturday's Nationwide race. And while they focused on each other, they missed Brad Keselowski coming up fast behind them. Keselowski slipped around the two on the high side to win, and Busch angrily confronted Vickers on pit road afterwards.
   Jimmie Johnson, once teammate both with Busch and with Vickers, said he wasn't sure why Busch was so upset: "They're both trying to win the race, and Kyle was mad he finished third…It just didn't make sense to me why Kyle was so frustrated."
   Vickers says his relationship with Busch is now very simple: "He's out of strikes," Vickers says. "I'm going to race him the way he races me…but he's out of rope."
    Winning and losing is a big deal, of course. But Vickers says Busch took it a bit too far.
    "It should mean a lot," Vickers says of winning. "But I think pitching a fit and a tantrum after a race…
   "I wanted to win that race as bad or more than he did, but I handled it very differently.  
    "He was mad because I raced him.  
    "He was mad because he said that I should have let him go, so that Brad, who didn't deserve to win, shouldn't have won. That's what he told me: That Keselowski didn't deserve to win and if I would have let him go and let him win, then Brad wouldn't have.
    "Frankly I don't really care if Kyle Busch wins. And I'm proud of Brad. Good for him. He snuck by both of us.
    "It's my job to race for the win.  If I can't win, I don't really care who does, to be honest with you." 
    Johnson, who had a little tussle with brother Kurt Busch a few weeks ago, shrugged off the Busch-Vickers debate with a bit of a laugh:
   "At times he (Kyle Busch) will even admit he says and does the wrong thing," Johnson says. "His emotions get the best of him.
    "He is trying to find that balance, and he's working on it.
    "In some ways he is an easy target…and he's trying to make those adjustments and trying to get it right.
    "I think we all watch from afar and think there are some small changes he could make that could really benefit his career and help him long-term. Hopefully he can make those adjustments.
    "I've worked with him, and still today have a friendship with him and talk to him all the time. And I hate to see the struggles he goes through.
    "He's a very talented driver.
     "In one way I hate to see it…and in another way, we don't have to worry about him sometimes because he self-destructs."
     Johnson laughed again.
    "When he gets it right -- and he has for periods of time -- the guy is on fire, and he's tough to beat," Johnson went on.
     "For him -- as a friend -- I certainly hope he can balance it all out and really enjoy himself.
      "I'm not sure he has as much fun as he needs to at this age…and winning as many races and driving three different cars and all that stuff.
     "He needs to be having fun."

    Vickers agrees: "It's good for the sport to have emotion. Maybe someone getting out of the car and pitching a fit and crying is a good thing.  It definitely made a lot of headline news.  
    "But when I talk about being upset about a small thing he probably caused….The damage he caused between his car and my car post-race (on pit road), running into my car, was a lot.  
    "The way he got out of the car and how angry he was…I just feel bad for him.  
    "I'm mad I didn't win the race too.  
    "But to live with so much anger, I don't know.  It just must be miserable.
   "I don't know what you expect out of someone who wants to win the race.  
    "I love what I do, and I'm very upset if I don't win.
    "But if that's what it takes to win, then maybe I don't want to…because I don't want to live my life that miserable, I just don't. It's just not who I am.  
     "I just don't want to be that upset because I didn't win."
    While Vickers insists "I'm not still mad about it," he adds "definitely I put it in the memory bank for the next go-round.  
    "I don't know if you want to call it Strike One or Strike Two,' but either way he's out of strikes.  
    "It's not something I'm mad about. I wasn't mad about it at the time.
     "In a lot of ways I feel sorry for him. I hate that he lives in such an angry place.  
     "To be so mad about something so small, it must be miserable to live like that.
     "That's just not the way I live my life.  
       "I'm very blessed to have great parents who raised me to be a very different person.  
        "So I'm fine with it.
     "Whatever happens, moving forward, the ball's in his court.  
      "I'm willing to race him hard and clean and move on down the road.
     "And if he's not willing to do that, then I'm willing to take whatever path he chooses."
    
    

    Kyle Busch (Photo: Toyota Motorsports)