HAMPTON, Ga. -- Brian Vickers' sleight of hand the last couple of races may not conjure up the same amount of shock and awe as Harry Houdini, David Copperfield or even Marshall Brodien, but his team's ability to improvise under adverse conditions at Bristol and Atlanta has allowed him to earn top billing as of one of NASCAR's best escape artists.

In an instant, a broken axle during a pit stop took Vickers, who had been contending for the win, to the brink of disaster. However, his crew was able to replace the axle and keep him on the same lap as the leads. And having dodged calamity, Vickers somehow worked his way back into the top 10, finishing seventh in Sunday night's Pep Boys Auto 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

“

[Sunday was] a night that shows why we're in contention. We had a car that could win, had a parts failure, came back from it and still finished seventh.

”

-- BRIAN VICKERS

And with one more race to go before the Chase field is set, Vickers cut the deficit between himself and 12th-place Matt Kenseth to 20 points.

"That was a wild night," Vickers said. "We obviously had a really good car. ... We were running second and our night turned sour on us there on a pit stop. We had a left rear axle break. I don't really know why yet. It just snapped.

"The guys did a tremendous job of getting that fixed. To be able to change an axle, not go a lap down and be able to finish seventh. We passed a couple of guys we're racing for the Chase, which is most important."

Things could have easily been better. Then again, things could have easily been worse.

Vickers and Kevin Harvick were the class of the field during the race's longest green-flag run, with Vickers getting out front for two laps during green-flag stops. But trouble came shortly after a two-car accident involving Kurt Busch and Reed Sorenson on Lap 246. When the leaders hit pit road for service, Vickers stepped on the gas -- and the axle snapped.

"My biggest fear, when it first happened, was that we broke a driveshaft or transmission or rear-end gear, which obviously would have put us out of the race," Vickers said.

Still, trying to replace an axle, even while the rest of the field is under caution, can be stressful.

"To break an axle, in the position we're in, in the Chase, was just devastating, but we never lost our cool," Vickers said. "I was trying to stay as optimistic as possible but needless to say, it wasn't easy. Breaking an axle in the middle of the race is a pretty devastating blow, to be honest with you. I wasn't really sure we could change it in one lap. Even if we lost a lap, as long as we didn't lose two, I knew we had a fast car. But I definitely knew it was going to hurt our chances."

But the Red Bull crew came through, and after returning to the track, Vickers was up to the task. He worked his way from 17th to 11th by Lap 280, broke back into the top 10 soon after and was still on the charge at the finish.

"[Sunday was] a night that shows why we're in contention," Vickers said. "We had a car that could win, had a parts failure, came back from it and still finished seventh.

"Definitely, it's confidence in the team and what we're capable of. We know we can have a fast car. But when you have problems and you come back from them, that's what a championship team's about. Everyone's going to take their turn in the barrel during the season. We've taken a lot more than most this year but the guys have done a good job rebounding, just like [Sunday]."

And so now it's on to Richmond, where Vickers won the pole and led 21 laps earlier this season. He hasn't recorded a top-10 finish there since 2004, but based on his continuing ability to evade bad luck, there's no reason to think he won't be in the thick of the battle.

"It's going to be a battle to the end," Vickers said. "It's going to be wild. I'm looking forward to it. Obviously, we'd like to be going to Richmond, locked into the Chase. But to go in there, even in contention, for a two-and-a-half-year-old team, says a lot about these guys, how far we've come. No matter what happens, we can walk away with our heads held high."