No. 55 RK Motors Charlotte Toyota driver Brian Vickers has a busy weekend of road course racing planned.
The Michael Waltrip Racing driver will spend Friday and Saturday driving his Nationwide Series car for Joe Gibbs Racing at Road America in Wisconsin. Saturday night he’ll fly a private plane over 2,200 miles to Sonoma Raceway where he’ll drive for MWR in Sunday’s Sprint Cup race. Vickers finished fourth at Sonoma last year behind MWR teammate Clint Bowyer who won the race.
While Vickers is in Wisconsin, 2009 K&N Pro Series West Champion, Jason Bowles will practice and qualify the No. 55 Toyota. The 30-year-old, Ontario, Calif. native owns nine K&N Pro Series West victories including two at the ultra-fast road course in Sonoma, Calif. He won the 2011 Toyota Showdown at Irwindale Speedway and raced in 39 NASCAR Nationwide and three NASCAR Camping World Truck Series races.
QUOTES
JASON BOWLES“I could not be more excited about an opportunity like this. They don’t come along often and I’m fortunate that both Rodney Childers and (MWR Ex. Vice Pres. of Competition) Scott Miller wanted to give me this chance. I have a few laps at Sonoma, so that will help get me comfortable. I can’t wait to get on the track and drive for a team the caliber of MWR. My dad is going to come up on Friday, he is the one who got me started in racing so it will be special to have him there as well. I don’t think we ever dreamed 20 years ago I would end up with this kind of opportunity. But I look forward to getting the car as good as possible for Brian on Sunday and can’t thank the whole MWR team enough.”
BRIAN VICKERS:“Going from one track to the other is going to be a challenge for sure, and not being able to practice at all in Sonoma. We’ve got a good base setup from last year though. We’ve done some testing and I think we will be good. Road racing the day prior will help. Being able to practice and qualify would definitely be better, though. I’ve been racing at Sonoma for nine years and it’s a great track. I’ve had some good runs there.”
MWR PR
