Vickers Is Target of Scorn by Fans

Moments after fan favorite Dale Earnhardt Jr. was deprived of winning the Nextel Cup race at Talladega Superspeedway, fans showered the Alabama track with plastic bottles and winner Brian Vickers with boos.

The fans were furious that Earnhardt -- leading Hendrick Motorsports teammates Jimmie Johnson and Vickers on the final lap Sunday in NASCAR’s UAW-Ford 500 -- was abruptly taken out by a wreck that Vickers triggered.

As Johnson and Vickers pulled out to pass Earnhardt at nearly 200 mph, Vickers clipped his teammate, sending both Johnson and Earnhardt careening into the infield and handing Vickers his first Cup win.

In the blink of an eye, Vickers also deprived Earnhardt and Johnson of big gains on points leader Jeff Burton in the Chase for the Nextel Cup.

Earnhardt is sixth, 106 points behind Burton. Johnson is eighth, 156 points behind. Vickers isn’t among the 10 drivers competing in the 10-race playoff for the title.

Johnson, sensing his championship chances slipping away, fumed after the race.

“It is a tough blow,” said the El Cajon driver. “I’m just bummed out that we can’t take advantage of a day when we can really close up in points.”

He didn’t call out Vickers by name, but did say, “Knowing the situation we’re all in, I would hope that someone would be a little more patient than they were.”

Earnhardt was calmer than his fans. “He didn’t wreck anybody on purpose,” he said of Vickers.

Perhaps one reason for his forgiveness was that Earnhardt himself was chided by Jeff Gordon for excessive “bump-drafting,” or bumping into the back of Gordon’s car while the field ran in tight packs around the 2.66-mile Talladega track.

Gordon, another Hendrick driver, was caught in an earlier multi-car crash Sunday that left him 36th and, as he put it, “pretty much done” in terms of winning his fifth title. He’s seventh in points, 147 behind Burton.

“[Earnhardt] seems to be able to run into the back of people harder than anybody else out there,” Gordon said.

Replied Earnhardt, “I pushed Jeff Gordon into the lead five times and every time I do that, he complains that I’m bump-drafting him in the corners and blah, blah, blah.

“Besides, every time I help him out, he never gives it back in return. That’s why he don’t have too many friends out there.”

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Former Cup champion Matt Kenseth is now only six points behind Burton, and one of Kenseth’s Roush Racing teammates, veteran Mark Martin, trails by 10 points.

Martin is no fan of Talladega, where he always expects to be involved in one of the track’s routine crashes. But he missed them Sunday and finished eighth.

Six Chase races remain, the next Saturday night at Lowe’s Motor Speedway in Charlotte, N.C., where security for Vickers will be increased after angry race fans called the track Monday to complain about his wrecking Earnhardt and Johnson.

Track owner Bruton Smith told the Associated Press, “We want to make sure Brian has an uninterrupted weekend here and that he is able to focus on his driving duties.”

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David Gilliland of Riverside, who has struggled since joining the Cup series for Robert Yates Racing in August, had by far his best weekend. He qualified his No. 38 Ford Fusion on the pole at Talladega and finished 15th in the 43-car field. He also earned a berth in the Budweiser Shootout in February at Daytona International Speedway, a non-points sprint for the prior year’s pole winners that kicks off NASCAR’s season.

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Juan Pablo Montoya’s stock car career is off to a promising start.

The former open-wheel racing star recently left the Formula One series to join NASCAR. His first race was Friday at Talladega in the minor league ARCA series. Montoya nearly won the pole, started second and finished third after drafting with other cars on Talladega’s high-banked turns like a stock car veteran.

“I never had so much fun in my life,” Montoya said.

james.peltz@latimes.com