Is it at all fair?
By now, we've heard so much about the Johnson-Vickers affair that we can literally recite the whole event out. It's a hot topic among NASCAR fans. Bickering among rivals is bad enough as it is…but Vickers and Johnson is taking a level higher…bickering among teammates. Both Jimmie Johnson and Brain Vickers belong to the Hendricks team although Vickers is about to leave the team, earlier announcing that he won't be with Hendricks for 2007.
For the benefit of those who has been out of the loop for a while, In Talladega on Sunday, Jimmie Johnson and Brain Vickers were heading for the finishing line behind the race leader Dale Earnhardt Jr with Johnson running second. In a split second movement, Vickers rammed scraped Johnson's car, sending the latter's car spinning out of control and into Earnhardt Jr's while he, the supposed perpetrator, cruised pass the victory line leaving the first and second in a tangled mess behind.
We all know that in any race, in any sport, there's a team pecking order…which means to say that there are primary race drivers and there are the non-existent-until-I-say-you-are. In this case, Johnson is No.1 while Vickers has never been given a fair chance to shine. This case reminds me, vividly, of Ferrari's dilemma earlier…between Michael Schumacher (the No.1) and Barrichello (the supporting one). One time too many, Barichello led the race with Schumacher trailing behind, Barichello actually had to give way and let Schumacher win the race while he steps on the second ladder on the podium.
This is race strategy, we might argue, and it's essential to the game. The second player has to know his game and understand the rules. But is it fair? As we can see, the second player may get a little bit too disgruntled. Barichello left Ferrari and now Vickers is leaving Hendricks.
Johnson openly criticized Vickers for his indiscretion while Jeff Gordon backed him up. The fact is that all this while, Brian Vickers have taken the beating while Johnson reveled in the glory. In NASCAR, there should be fairness even between team members – but it seems as though second racers are treated as less important than the No.1 racer. In all fairness, even supporting racers have sponsors, what would be going through the mind of the sponsors if they are not getting their money's worth?
And to get a little sentimental here in this article, Vickers wanted to dedicate his first win (yes, first win in three years!) to his friend, Ricky Hendrick who died in a plane crash. But he never got the chance to even…have the opportunity. The podium was BEYOND his reach not because he wasn't good enough. Because he's not given the chance to.
Well, at least we can see that even though Johnson is disgruntled, Earnhardt Jr. is a little bit more understanding about the situation. All we can say is that, perhaps, Vickers was merely doing what he was being paid to do…and that is to race. And racing is teammate is not wrong.