Vickers

May has been a good month for GMAC Racing and Hendrick Motorsports as an organization. Our Winston Cup drivers swept every race during the month and all of the teams seem to be riding the wave of success.

We had back-to-back top-five finishes at Gateway International Raceway and Nazareth Speedway, and I believe strongly that those are just a preview of things to come for GMAC Racing.

At Nazareth we finished second -- the best finish ever for this team -- to Ron Hornaday. Until a couple of weeks ago, Nazareth was one of those tracks on schedule that I had never been to, but I was lucky enough to have David Green take me around the track before we even practiced, just to give me some pointers.

I'd never been to Gateway either, but we managed to finish fourth there a week before heading to Nazareth.

Unlike anything else we race at, Nazareth is a unique little one-mile oval track where none of the corners are the same. It can be difficult to make your car to handle perfectly, but we managed to get the No. 5 GMAC Chevrolet dialed in -- almost good enough for a victory. I really wish we had more tracks like Nazareth on the schedule.

I spent a lot of laps running behind Hornaday and tried every which way to get around him, but I just couldn't get close enough. When he drove over the rumble strips, I drove over the rumble strips. When he drove deep into the corner, I drove deeper into the corner, just trying to learn from him and possibly expose an area where his car might not be handling just right.

Getting close to Ron was one thing, but I knew passing him would be something totally different. He's a veteran competitor who races smart and tough. He'd won at Nazareth in the past, so I had to take that into consideration because I knew he wasn't about to let me by, even if I was faster.

Honestly, though, I think that if we could've made our way around him, the No. 5 Chevy would've been able to stay out front.

I'm really proud of my team and the way they've been performing, particularly at those tracks that I've never even seen. I grew up racing on circuits that took us to different tracks every week and you had a limited amount of time to find "the line" and get your car dialed in -- so I think having that experience is helping me now. Plus, our team has a lot of good notes from previous seasons and we've been fortunate to unload with good baseline setups in the car.

Somebody mentioned to me recently that of the 119 laps I've led this season, 118 of them have come at tracks I've never been to before. The season started with me having no experience on 10 tracks the Busch Series was scheduled to visit, but it's quickly been reduced to two.

Knowing how good we've been so far this season -- especially at new places for me -- it only seems logical that we will be that much better when we return to some of these tracks for a second time.

Right now, my focus is to stick to the goal I set earlier this year of completing as many laps as possible. That's the key to it all. If we can complete the laps, I think the finishes, points, and maybe a win or two, will follow.

Even though we're currently eighth in the standings, I'm not worrying about points right now. It's way too early. As long as we continue to make the laps and get better each week, everything else will fall into place.

Brian Vickers drives the No. 5 GMAC Financial Services Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports in the NASCAR Busch Series. He is be providing a monthly diary to ESPN.com throughout the 2003 NASCAR season. Vickers' personal Web site can be found at www.brianvickers.com or go to www.hendrickmotorsports.com for team information