The Name's Vickers, Brian Vickers

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Summary: Brian Vickers reflects on his time at Hendrick Motorsports.

AUTHOR: Jaik
EMAIL: jaik@cryptoffic.com
RATING: PG-13
CHARACTER: BrianVickers, Brian POV
SERIES: The Fabulous Life of.
CATEGORY: Reflection
DISCLAIMER: I own NOTHING and am affiliated with NO ONE mentioned here. Not the drivers, not the teams, no one. This is all fiction and fun. In other words...NOT REAL, NOT REAL, NOT REAL. ;-)
DEDICATION: To all of Vickers’ diehard fans
AUTHOR'S NOTE: In response to Vick leaving Hendricks
AUTHOR'S NOTE2: -+- … -+- represents a flashback
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I finally finish digging through the mountain of invoices and memos on my desk to come across a final small note.

Dear Mr. Vickers,

Please note that your autographed memorabilia will need to be finished and packaged before the termination of your contract. Also; any further profits made from the ‘#25 GMAC Chevy Monte Carlo SS’ will be forwarded to you in the said amount of commission in a monthly royalties check.

Thank you for your attention to this matter,

Millie Strife,
Attending Secretary for Mr. Rick Hendrick

I slam it down on my desk and reach for my laptop, yanking it over to me. This has all happened so fast….

-+- 2 weeks earlier: Wednesday May 24, 2006 -+-

I can’t stop shaking…every time I reach for the doorknob my hand trembles…. Why am I so frightened? This man has been a father to me since college. He’d never do me wrong, or tell me that I couldn’t do something…. So why can’t I do this?

Finally I get through the door. How? I don’t recall, I was so petrified and then suddenly I was face to face with “Dad.”

He’s always so happy to see me, and I wonder if he does it all for Ricky? He’s so thrilled to be alive it seems. We tell each other about our days, and no matter how hard I try to play it off and hide…he still sees that something is wrong. So when he finally asks me I tell him.

“I don’t want to race for you anymore.” His smile fades instantly, replaced by a worried look. He asks all the questions I was expecting…. How come? Did something happen? Did someone on your crew do something? Was it something I did? We’re not neglecting you are we?

How am I supposed to tell him that I don’t want to drive for him anymore? He’s been so good to me over the years…giving some no name kid his son met a $100,000 car to tear up every weekend and never questioning my decisions. I just wish there was some way to let him know how unbelievably thankful I am for all that he’s given me.

“I just feel like you’re keeping me around for Ricky’s sake….” I pause for a minute unsure of what to say, “…I know you haven’t been keeping me around because of my skill. I just…want you to have the best team possible, and if that means I’m not on it…then, I guess I’m not on it.”

He just sighed and hugged me with tears in his eyes, didn’t say a word other than “I understand.” He pulled up the consent forms, we both signed, and I announced my departure….

-+- Back in Vickers’ office -+-

Now I’m public enemy number 1 it seems. Everyone is out to know why I left one of the best racing teams in all of motorsports, I wonder if anyone else in the damn world realizes it’s because there are too many memories here.

-+- 6 years ago, after a Busch race -+-

I felt so out of place. I didn’t know many other drivers that well. Not like it would’ve been easy to anyway…who wanted to hear what some 17 year old brat had to say? I was usually at the receiving end of scathing looks from older drivers, but it didn’t bother me. I did it all for the racing. For the thrill of flying around a piece of pavement at 200 miles an hour.

I could’ve become anything I wanted, I graduated a full semester early…with honors! I always kept up a constant 4.0 GPA, I could’ve been president! But instead, I wanted to drive fast cars in a circle. But my dream was about to be short lived…if I didn’t find a good team to join I was going to have to pull out of racing because my family’s team just couldn’t compete with the other big names in racing.

That’s when I met Ricky Hendrick, my best friend.

It was also when he offered me a job driving the #5 car. Of course I said yes, but there was one last thing before I could drive the #5…what would his father, Rick Hendrick, say? At first it was a steady stream of ‘No’ but then shortly after the season finale at Homestead, we set up a meeting and we convinced Rick that I was the one who should be behind the wheel for the #5.

-+- Back in Vickers’ office -+-

He got me into a car not even a month later. Even with my old team! My manager, Brian Whitesell, and my old crew chief, Lance McGrew, came with me and I was racing! I don’t think Rick was ever thrilled about me driving that car…but I sure did impress him, I went on that next year to win the Busch series championship. I thought everything was going great. I had just won the Busch cup and I was scheduled to move up to the Nextel cup. Nothing could touch me.

I set Lappy down on my desk and lean back, stretching to rub my temples. I was never ready for what happened October 24, 2004…the day the plane smashed into the mountain and Ricky was ripped from us forever.

There was a dire conference for all Hendrick employees, this couldn’t be good. Then when I found out what had happened…I wasn’t ready for it. At first, I didn’t believe it, they were just telling some horribly awful lie. So when I finally accepted the fact Ricky was gone; I just hurt.

I wasn’t mad, I didn’t blame anyone, there was no thirst for vengeance…I just hurt. At first I thought that if I denied it long enough that he would come back; but he didn’t. Eventually I took a turn for the worse; I thought that if I killed myself I could go and be with him forever. But I knew that wasn’t the truth, I knew that if I did do it I’d just be dead.

So I finally got through it somehow… I’m definitely not over it, but I got through my depression. It took a few years after that horrible accident for the truth to set in. I lost my passion for racing; but I couldn’t let Rick down. Not after all we had been through.

We got so much closer after Ricky’s death…it was almost as if I helped Rick fill the whole in his heart. But I hadn’t done anything since I got into the #25…I was just extra weight on the team. I was keeping Rick’s team from being the best, and I couldn’t do that to him. So I told him I was leaving.

And that’s how all this shit started. The media coverage, the scandal at Hendrick, and the underhanded move of Casey Mears; how he pulled the rug out from under Ganassi’s feet. And how I got back to all this damn desk work. Signing off sponsorships, notarizing documents, responding to memos, and trying to finish a mountain of autographing.

But, then again, that’s the fabulous life of Vickers…. I get to sign and pack…. Well at least till I finish making my move over to Toyota. Or maybe if I retire from driving, Rick’ll have a management position for me….

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Jaik - jaik@cryptoffic.com