This season started out poorly when Vickers suffered a blown tire during his qualifying race for the Daytona 500; causing him to fail to qualify. The next week, the team regrouped, however, and scored a tenth-place finish in their first outing, the Auto Club 500 at California, which was coincidentally Toyota's first top 10 in the Cup Series. Two weeks later, Vickers led Toyota's first lap in the Cup series at Atlanta.