Brian Vickers returns to Auto CLub Speedway, a year after medical issues put him on the sidelines

FONTANA >> If there is any NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver that can relate to the emotions Tony Stewart is going through, it’s Brian Vickers. Ironically, Vickers will drive in Stewart’s place this weekend at Auto Club Speedway.

Stewart, who will retire as a driver at season’s end, is sidelined by injuries (including a broken back) suffered in an off-season sand-dune buggy incident in Glamis. Vickers, has replaced him in two of the four races thus far this season, is familiar with such a situation, having taken time off four times since 2010 to deal with his own medical issues that included a hole in his heart and blood clots.

Vickers will drive the Stewart-Haas Racing No. 14 Chevrolet.

“As much as I want to race this car as long as I can, I really want to see Tony back in it,” Vickers said during a press session Friday at moing. “I have been in his shoes. I know exactly what it’s like.”

That’s because he missed the Fontana stop a year ago due to clots. He missed the first two races of the 2015 season recovering from heart surgery, raced at Las Vegas and Phoenix but was pulled out of the Auto Club 400 two days before the event. He never retued to the track.

It’s a bit different this time around. He’s splitting time with Ty Dillion in the car and his next race is at Martinsville in two weeks. However, there’s nothing official after that from SHR.

“I’m really thinking long term; I just want to get through tomorrow,” said Vickers. “I am loving the weekend-off, weekend-on thing. That has been very relaxing, very fun. I get to race, but I also get some time off. (I’m) really pumped about (Martinsville) to kind of continue that forward. Then we are figuring out everything from there.

“Nothing has really changed. Everyone is really just kind of waiting to see how Tony shakes out. It’s his last season; he deserves to be in this car as much as he can be. I’m happy to tu the keys back over as soon as he’s ready.”

Vickers was in a dual capacity at his press briefing. Today’s Xfinity Series race is the Treatmyclot.com 300. He’s appeared in television commercials with Aold Palmer on behalf of the blood-clot medication and Sunday’s car is sponsored by Aie’s Army Charitable Foundation.

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So, how was it filming with the 86-year-old Aie on the golf course?

“Although he hasn’t been playing 18 holes lately, he can still putt,” Vickers said. “We had some putting and chipping competitions and he just crushed all of us. We tried and tried and tried and then he steps up and made like six out of seven. It just kept going in. Not a single other person could make this 30-foot putt. That is when we realized – he’s still got it.”

Track report

More than 20 years after the pavement on the backstretch at ACS, it’s still talked about

“You could write a book about a lap at this place,” said Carl Edwards Friday moing aftaer the first practice session. “There’s so much happening out there: where you place your tires, how you enter the coer, what the guy in front of you is doing. All of those things add up to a lot different balance. Tus 1 and 2, as many times as I’ve been here, I still don’t feel like I have it figured out.

“There’s spots that I like to run, there’s things I like to do, but there’s some spots out there and it’s like, man, I can’t quite figure out what’s happening. When you hit this point in the race track and the car moves and I can’t repeat it all of the time, so you never really know what you’re going to get. I think that’s good. It’s a little bit unpredictable, it’s definitely tough and, to me, that’s part of the fun.”

A former Cup winner at the track, Edwards qualified fifth for Sunday’s race with a fast lap of 187.222 mph. Austin Dillon won the pole at 188.482.

Haas down under

The Haas F1 Team, owned by Gene Haas who is partnered with Stewart in NASCAR, made its debut Friday in the first practice sessions for Sunday’s Australian Grand Prix in Melboue. Both practice sessions were conducted amid intermittent showers, forcing drivers to primarily navigate the 5.303-kilometer (3.295-mile), 16-tu Albert Park Circuit on either on a full wet tire or intermediates.

The team recorded 32 laps between the two sessions, 14 laps in the first practice and then 18.

Romain Gutiérrez was 11th quickest (1:42.891) in the second session while Esteban Grosjean was 13th (1:43.731). Mercedes; Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes was the quickest at 1:38.841.

Pit stops

John Lynch, a 15-year NFL veteran with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Denver Broncos, will drive the pace car Sunday before the Sprint Cup race. A nine-time Pro Bowl selection, he is currently an analyst. … Roger Penske built the speedway (then Califoia Speedway) that opened in 1997 after several years of construction. This marks Penske’s 50th anniversary in racing and the track will pay tribute to him by painting the Team Penske 50th Anniversary logo on the infield grass. … In October of 1990, Andretti Smith started his career as a Wood Brothers crew member. However, that streak ended last week in Phoenix while he recovered from an injury suffered in Las Vegas handling a gas can. Instead of the track, he spent race day watching his daughter play T-Ball. “Honestly, it was a lot easier than I thought it would be,” Smith told PitTalk.com.