The 2013 NASCAR season is over for driver Brian Vickers, who has been diagnosed to have blood clot in his right calf after a medical workup on Monday. According to Vickers' attending doctors, the race car driver might be able to return to action before the kickoff of the 2014 season.
The sidelined NASCAR driver was put on blood thinning medications by his doctor. It is not the first time for Vickers to experience a life-threatening blood clot. Back in 2010, he also missed 25 races while driving for Red Bull Racing and had to go through heart surgery.
Vickers has collected five Top-5 finishes and 10 Top-10 finishes for his races with the MWR team from 2012 through 2013. Vickers was named as the full-time driver of the No. 55 team car in August.
"If there's anything to be positive about with today's news it's that this is only a temporary setback. The timing for this is never good, but I'm glad we'll get it out of the way now and be ready to run for a championship with the Aaron's Dream Machine in 2014," Vickers said in a press statement.
Michael Waltrip, team co-owner and two-time Daytona 500 winner, will suit up for the MWR team and ride the No.55 Dream Machine this coming weekend at the Talladega Superspeedway. The team will name another driver for the remaining races this season.
At the moment, Vickers is ranked 8 on the Nationwide Series with 970 points and 97 points behind overall leaders. The Joe Gibbs Racing team, for which Vickers is driving full-time riding the No. 20 car, has not announced a replacement driver for Vickers as the series will resume on the first week of November in Texas.
"We are praying Brian will have a quick and full recovery from this latest issue. Everyone at JGR appreciates all the hard work and effort he has given to our Nationwide Series program this year. He is a great competitor and we look forward to seeing him back on the track in 2014," Joe Gibbs said in an interview with ESPN.
