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| Brian Vickers fastest in first two Martinsville practice sessions (Getty) |
“Always fun to be back in Martinsville for a lot of reasons. This will be my last race this year with MWR (Michael Waltrip Racing). This is where I ran my very firststock car race ever in the Allison Legacy Series — I have no idea what year that was, but it was awesome and I really enjoyed it. Obviously, here today to announce and speak of 2013. I know a lot of you have asked questions and I really appreciate your curiosity. For me, staying with MWR was a conscious decision to try to be in the best position to win races and be with the best team that I thought I could do that with. There’s a lot of factors that are involved in that — from the manufacturer to the team to the owner to the sponsors to the crew chief and just blatant chemistry. Obviously it’s more than just building fast race cars, which MWR does and Toyota is delivering great engines right now and a lot of support. The chemistry I have with Rodney (Childers, crew chief) is unprecedented for me in my career. I’ve never had anything like it and that’s the kind of results that I want to continue having. The obvious question is why is it not full time? Mark (Martin) is settled in pretty snug next year and to be honest with you, sometimes things work out for a reason. I look back to this year and going in to 2012, there were some opportunities to go full time, but I made the decision that I wanted to be in a car even if it was for eight races that I felt like I could win races with and a team I wanted to be with long term — it was really more of a long term decision. A short term and long term decision, and I feel like that mission was accomplished. Now, going into next year I am kind of in the same boat — there were some opportunities out there that were full time, but where do you really want to be? The question I’m asking myself is, ‘Where do you really want to be? What is your goal and how do you get there?’ My goal is to win a championship. Clearly that’s not going to happen next year with the exception of maybe an owner’s championship with Mark and Michael (Waltrip), but to win a driver’s championship and an owner’s championship you’ve got to be with a good team, you’ve got to have the chemistry and you’ve got to be with a good manufacturer — I feel like I found that with Toyota, with MWR and everyone on board, with Aaron’s, with Rodney and all the guys on the whole team. I wish I could list all of them — management and everything. Obviously, it’s going to be nine races again next year — far short of what I would like to have, but I’m as excited about those nine races as I’ve ever been excited about any race in my career. That’s what was important to me was to know that even in those nine — showing up at the race track every week I had a shot to win the race. That’s why I made the decision I made and I’m very thankful and very happy for the opportunity at MWR – Michael (Waltrip) and Rob (Kauffman, co-owner) and everyone on the team has given me this year and again next year. Honestly, I know a lot of you are like, ‘Wait, you can race full time and you chose this?’ Trust me, I’m excited about it. I made a conscious decision to do it two years in a row and I can assure you that I am enthused about it.”
- Toyota Racing
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