2014 Sprint Media Tour Notes – Day 4 (of 4)

VICKERS EAGER TO GET BACK BEHIND WHEEL

After being sidelined with recurring health issues last season, Michael Waltrip Racing’s Brian Vickers said he can’t wait to get back behind the wheel in 2014.

“I’m cleared. I’m ready, off blood thinners. I’ve never been more ready in my entire life to get back in a race car,” he told media at the NASCAR Sprint Media Tour hosted by Charlotte Motor Speedway on Thursday.

Vickers’ latest three-month hiatus provided him the opportunity to take his wife on a honeymoon and relax a little, but also served as a reminder of how much he misses races.

Moving forward, Vickers said, managing his health is just a matter of being aware of warning signs and

“That’s really all you can do,” Vickers said. “My last incident was a provoked incident. I had to wear a boot for a month. In those situations, we’ve got to be more mindful of it, but that’s really all you can do.”

Team owner Michael Waltrip said he’s optimistic looking ahead to 2014. Several sponsors, including Peak, Five Hour Energy and Aaron’s will be back on board with Vickers and teammate Clint Bowyer, and the team has added Kansas Strong to the lineup as well.

“We are as prepared as we have ever been at this point in the season,” Bowyer said. “We are poised and ready for battle. It’s been a great off season, but I’m ready.”

EXCITEMENT TO SPARE AT JOE GIBBS RACING

No news is good news for the Joe Gibbs Racing team, and they are excited to continue the momentum of 2013 into the 2014 season. The unofficial tally of the word “excited” in reference to the upcoming season reached 34 before drivers discussed the sport’s changes in breakout sessions.

After a tough 2013 season, Denny Hamlin, driver of the No. 11 FedEx Toyota Camry, believes that the NASCAR winner-takes-all championship format plays into his history of success at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

“I think it’s great for me. That’s for sure. I think that every kind of format that I’ve heard about the Chase and everything really benefits me a lot,” Hamlin said before NASCAR outlined the rules changes Thursday afternoon. “There’s the whole thing of win a Chase race and move on. I know it’s all good stuff.  Knowing that I’ve got Martinsville before Homestead, if I win Martinsville then I’ll automatically be part of Homestead’s championship picture. All that seems great for our team in particular. Homestead is one of our best race tracks, no doubt about it.”

Matt Kenseth, driver of the No. 20 Dollar General Toyota Camry for Joe Gibbs Racing, also trusts NASCAR to make the right changes for the sport and is more concerned about making those changes work for him.

“I don’t spend a lot of time thinking about that unless I get my opinion asked,” Kenseth said. “They’re way smarter than I am, and they’re going to figure out what’s best for the sport all the way around from rules package to format changes to whatever it may be. It’s our job to figure out how to take advantage of that, make it work for us and try to succeed in that environment. That’s really more what I’m worried about.”

Hamlin and Kenseth’s teammate, Kyle Busch, had a slightly different opinion on the changing format, but is ready for whatever happens.

“We all expressed our reasons of making some slight changes to it and seeing if they would bite on any of it, but they didn’t, of course,” Busch, driver of the No. 18 M&Ms Toyota Camry, said. “It was already said and done, and what’s coming is coming.”