Brian Vickers to get road course outings

The former Red Bull driver was initially set to fill in for Mark Martin in the #55 Toyota Camry at only six races, but his fifth place on his Cup return at Bristol earlier this month has convinced the team to have a rethink.

Vickers, 28, led 125 laps at Bristol, contributing towards the best Cup result for MWR as its Toyotas came home third, fourth and fifth.

"Brian came at MWR and made a statement," said team boss Michael Waltrip. "He showed not only our organisation what he's capable of, but the whole world. We felt like that made him deserving to be able to run some more races.

"Eight races, if I do that math correctly, we're up to a quarter of a season. So you keep going young man. you might have them all one day!"

Vickers completes his second outing for MWR this weekend at Martinsville, where he had a rough race last year after being involved in several incidents.

"Eight is better than six and that's the way I'm looking at right now. And six is better than none," said Vickers. "I couldn't ask being in a better situation obviously. Everyone knows I feel that way with how we ran at Bristol... I'm really pumped about it."

MWR's #55 car currently ranks eighth in the owners' standing, adding points scored by both Martin and Vickers at the wheel of the car.