LOOKING IN ON: MOTOR SPORTS

Thursday, June 29, 2006 | 7:44 a.m.

There is no longer any doubt that the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series is a young driver's sport. Consider this: At the ripe old age of 22, Brian Vickers feels the need to switch teams because he isn't producing with Hendrick Motorsports.

Many Cup drivers spend their careers striving to land a ride with an elite team such as Rick Hendrick's, but Vickers announced last weekend that he would jump to the upstart Red Bull Racing team in 2007 and drive one of the team's Toyota Camrys. (Despite the protestations of purists, Toyota will become the first foreign automaker to compete in NASCAR's top series since Jaguar in the 1950s.)

Vickers hasn't completed three full seasons behind the wheel of the No. 25 GMAC Chevrolet, and he's winless in 93 starts in the fourth car for the Hendrick Motorsports team.

So, he approached Hendrick, and they decided to part ways.

"For whatever reasons - and I take my part in the responsibility - the 25 team and I haven't been able to perform to my expectations or theirs," Vickers said. "I was fortunate enough to be able to have an opportunity to speak with lot of different teams, and we decided on Team Red Bull because these guys are very committed to winning races and championships."

Vickers said he feels like the "fifth wheel" to Hendrick teammates Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson and Kyle Busch.

"We've been here in the Cup Series now for three years, so it's kind of a double-edged sword," he said. "You've got enough experience to know whether or not that chemistry is going to work. For whatever reason, it hasn't. But I'm still fortunate enough to be young enough at the same time to make a move and have great opportunities going forward."

Although it will be Red Bull's first venture into NASCAR, the energy-drink giant owns and operates two Formula One teams and provides support to teams and athletes in numerous other forms of motor sports, including rally racing, off-road racing and motocross / Supercross.

Chasing the Chase

Kurt Busch, a Las Vegas native, made the most of his 200th career NASCAR Nextel Cup Series start this past weekend in Sonoma, Calif.

Busch, the 2004 series champion, earned the fifth pole of his career (and first at a road course) and finished fifth in the race. It was the 46th top-five finish and 84th top-10 finish for Busch, who has 15 Cup victories.

Busch moved up two spots to 14th in Nextel Cup points and trails 10th-place Kevin Harvick by 165 points with 10 races remaining before the start of the "Chase for the Nextel Cup." Only the top 10 drivers - and any others within 400 points of the leader after 26 races - qualify for the Chase.

Busch, who started the season with a 38th-place showing in the Daytona 500, has strung together three consecutive top-10 finishes.

"Starting the season off like that really put us in a hole as far as the points went," Busch said. "But we're coming back, scratching and clawing to get all the points we can and giving it our best shot to get back up there and make the Chase."

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