Brian Vickers /No. 55 Aaron’s Dream Machine Richmond Preview

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In: Xfinity Series News

No. 55 Aaron’s Dream Machine Toyota driver Brian Vickers would love to win Saturday’s NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Richmond International Raceway. The No. 55 is 18th in owner points, but a win coupled with the July 14 victory in New Hampshire would likely earn the Michael Waltrip Racing team one of the two wildcard berths in the 2013 owner’s championship.

But, Vickers is working on more than just Saturday night’s race.

He is using these final 2013 races as a jump start to the 2014 season that will see him drive the Aaron’s Toyota in every race.

VICKERS ON 2014 PREPARATION: “We go out there and do our best and we never give up. We can’t thank Aaron’s enough for coming on board and having me in the car the rest of the season and next year. That’s what this year is about, preparing for next year and that’s what we’re doing. Obviously Scott Miller (MWR executive vice president of competition) has been helping on the pit box, but we have Billy Scott (MWR engineer) who has been a phenomenal race engineer. As you know this sport has changed, there’s not one man at the top anymore and those two guys have to play an integral role in these cars. ”

WHAT INPUT WILL YOU HAVE ON SELECTING THE No. 55’s CREW CHIEF? “I certainly have a say, and I have a voice in it. They’re most definitely going to want my opinion, but my experience with most companies, the guy writing the check is the guy with the final say. And, that’s not me. I’m going to defer to them on that one. I think within the organization, as a whole, obviously in the team structure, the drivers are always going to have some input.”

POTENTIAL CREW CHIEFS: “From our standpoint, everybody is an option. MWR is a phenomenal organization with a great culture. They have a lot of depth and we want to grow that depth. You always want to try to promote from within, but no decision has been made. Right now Billy is filling his roles that he’s always fulfilled and doing an excellent job of it. He’s a great race engineer. Whether or not we change his title going into next year, we don’t know yet. Scott’s (Miller) helping – the reality is one person can’t do that job anymore. It’s a combo deal. You have to have a crew chief and a race engineer and I don’t know that one job is any more important than the other, they’re just different. We have Scott and Billy doing both of those roles. What we do next is really a factor of what the group and team want, what’s best for the team and what each individual wants moving forward.”

MWR PR

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