Vickers scores Toyota's first top-five

Vickers led 76 of the 400 laps of NASCAR's longest race, looking at ease running a very high line which few drivers ventured to take consistently. He made it work for most of the distance, that is until he hit the wall due to very heavy steering on his car.

"I'm feeling pretty worn out," said an exhausted Brian Vickers after the race. "But running 600 miles with no power steering is rough. We had a great car all night and that really helped me get through the night.

"The Team Red Bull guys did a great job in the pits and we definitely had the car to beat. Every time we got into the lead, the only thing that was really hurting us was getting too far out in front -- we really didn't want to see a lot of those cautions."

Vickers was forced to have lengthy stops to allow his team to replenish the power steering of his Camry, which kept vanishing during the second half of the race. He reckons the issue was one of many that probably lost them their first chance of a victory.

"If we could've just had power steering, I really think we could have won this race," Vickers added. "We struggled through so many tough times tonight with the power steering problem, the starter going out and cutting down the right-front tire. But, nobody on the team gave up all night -- we just kept going after it all night."

This weekend all the Toyota teams were running engines with a revised power curve, which Vickers says gave them an edge that made him untouchable at the front of the field at various times during Sunday's race.

"It was definitely a noticeable difference and we knew that coming here," said the 23-year-old. "It showed in qualifying with the number of Toyotas that made the race.

"It really shows what the engine is capable of when you can get the motor wound up and keep it wound up. We were really able to show that when we ran up top and were able to pull away from the other guys."

Despite his fifth place finish, Vickers will still need to qualify on speed for next weekend's race at Dover as his car ranks 39h in the car-owner standings.