Pit mistakes ruin top-five day for Red Bull Racing

FONTANA, Calif. -- For Brian Vickers and A.J. Allmendinger, Sunday night was literally the pits.

Vickers finished 12th and Allmendinger 14th in the Pepsi 500 at Auto Club Speedway, but both teammates had visions of much more, especially when they ran in the top five for much of the first 150 laps of the race.

Autostock

Brian Vickers

Pepsi 500

Official Results

Pos.	Driver	Make
1.	Jimmie Johnson	Chevrolet
2.	Greg Biffle	Ford
3.	Denny Hamlin	Toyota
4.	Kevin Harvick	Chevrolet
5.	Matt Kenseth	Ford
6.	Carl Edwards	Ford
7.	Kyle Busch	Toyota
8.	Kasey Kahne	Dodge
9.	David Reutimann	Toyota
10.	Clint Bowyer	Chevrolet
12.	Brian Vickers	Toyota
14.	A.J. Allmendinger	Toyota

• Results | Points | Lap-by-Lap
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However, pit stop issues in the final 50 laps doomed both cars to finishes outside of the top-10, leaving both drivers disappointed in what could have been a red-letter day for Red Bull.

There were some positives -- Allmendinger's run put the No. 84 Toyota solidly into the top 35 in owner's points, and Vickers moved up to 15th in the points -- but both lamented letting what seemed like sure top-10 finishes get away at the end.

Vickers was particularly upset about a penalty for a loose tire that left the No. 83 Toyota at the tail end of the field with 78 laps remaining.

"To be honest, I'm just getting tired of being beat off pit road," Vickers said. "I like the guys we have on our crew. They are good people and I know they work really hard. They put the effort behind and that is what really counts, but this is becoming an every-week thing, where we are losing 10 or 15 spots off of pit road."

Allmendinger was in fourth place with 70 laps to go, but a pair of bungled pit stops left him 19th on the final restart. He was able to rally and had a spirited battle with David Ragan for 13th at the end.

"I think we still had a really good day, except our pit stops were horrible," Allmendinger said. "We came in fourth with two pit stops to go and came out 12th, and the next pit stop, came out 19th. With this competitive field and the way these cars are, you can't get back there. I think we made up five spots on the restart."

Vickers started 19th, but made an immediate impact, cracking the top-10 within the first 10 laps of the race. He and Allmendinger -- who started second -- were running second and third behind eventual winner Jimmie Johnson in the early going.

"We had a really good car throughout the race," Allmendinger said. "Just at the end of the race, the last two big runs, we got too loose in the rear. The track got a little more grip in the front of the car than we did in the rear, and we just didn't keep up with it.

"The car was good in clean air and if we could have gotten out there, I think we would have been good. The motor was really strong. We could run with anybody, so it was a good package. We just have to keep working on it."

But as day turned to night, the nightmares began on pit road. And giving up track position killed any chance for either Red Bull driver to capitalize.

"You can't lose 15 spots," Allmendinger said. "Unless you had Jimmie Johnson's car, you couldn't make that up. It's tough, because you're not just starting 18th, you're restarting 36th or 38th. The lapped cars have just as much right to race as we do. You're in so much dirty air and that's killing the tires, and there's just a lot going on. But we stayed clean and did what we had to do. I think we could have been a little bit better, but we got want we wanted out of it."

For Allmendinger, it's been a long, steady road back into contention for a guaranteed starting spot. Starting with Chicago, he scored four consecutive top-20 finishes, including a career-best 10th at Indianapolis.

"We've been doing that the last six weeks," Allmendinger said. "If you take Michigan out of it and the second Pocono, we've been right there in the top 10. At Bristol, we got wrecked, but everything else has been in the top 15. We're starting to run up there.

"I think the big boost was the qualifying effort. I was really proud of all the guys for that. It was a solid day. We'd like to have been a little bit better, but it could have been a lot worse. We'll take it."