Former NASCAR driver Brian Vickers surfaced in newly released documents by the U.S. Department of Justice related to Jeffrey Epstein.
The documents, which included personal emails from the Epstein Files Transparency Act, were released Jan. 30, and Vickers is prominently featured in direct correspondence with Epstein dating back to at least 2012.
Vickers’ ex-wife Sarah Kellen has been named through the years as a co-conspirator in Epstein’s sex trafficking ring, but the driver’s direct relationship with Epstein was previously unclear. Kellen has said she is a victim of Epstein, but in 2007, she was accused by authorities in Palm Beach, Florida, of helping recruit young women to provide sex for Epstein.
Friday’s release contained more than three million additional pages, including more than 2,000 videos and 180,000 images regarding Epstein, who was found dead in his jail cell of apparent suicide in August 2019.
In one message from March 2012, Vickers forwarded an email to Epstein with the subject line ‘Male Fairy Tail,’ which begins like a children’s fairy tale but pivots to sexually explicit material after the story’s princess rejects a prince’s proposal.
The files also highlight Epstein working behind the scenes for Vickers on NASCAR sponsorships after the news of the driver’s then-wife’s involvement with Epstein started to become public.
In 2013, Epstein emailed a redacted party to say that the general manager of Michael Waltrip Racing had reached out to ask about Vickers, concerned that a sponsor – Aaron’s – might get spooked and not follow through on a deal. Epstein says he then called the co-owners of racing team – Waltrip and Rob Kauffman – to ‘discuss any questions they may have.’
Epstein goes on to say that Kauffman and Waltrip were ‘good with it on a personal level’ but ‘have to keep the best interest of the team in mind,’ mentioning that the CEO of Aaron’s was ‘the kind of person who doesn’t even want someone holding a beer in their hands while wearing an Aaron’s shirt.’
Epstein claims in the email that Waltrip and Kauffman didn’t ‘intend to bring it to Aaron’s attention right now and are hoping they won’t find out.’ The company went on to sponsor Vickers for the 2014 season.
In February 2019, Vickers sent an email to Epstein with the subject line ‘Thought you would like this,’ containing the message ‘Happy Valentine’s Buddy’ and a video attachment.
Vickers, who won the Busch Series championship in 2003, won three times on the NASCAR circuit and retired from racing in 2015 following health concerns.