Vickers to miss remainder of the season
During a press conference Friday at Charlotte Motor Speedway, Red Bull Racing’s Brian Vickers, driver of the No. 83 Red Bull Toyota, will remain sidelined for the next six months, which will take him out of NASCAR competition for the remainder of the 2010 season.
“Due to what’s happened and due to the blood thinners that I’m on, I will be out of the car for a minimum of six months—for the rest of the year (season),” Vickers said on Friday. “And, if something changes and I can get back in sooner, than great. But right now, it’s going to be the remainder of the season. As you can imagine, that is killing me—no pun intended.”
Charlotte-based Dr. Steven Limentani says that Vickers’ prescribed blood thinners — lovenox, heparin and Coumadin — present too large of a risk in the event of an accident for excessive blood loss. Therefore, he feels it is best for Vickers to set out the rest of the season. It was discovered a week ago that Vickers had several blood clots.
“It is not advisable for him to race while he’s on blood thinners,” Dr. Limentani said.
“I can actually race and be on blood thinners,” Vickers said. “I just can’t crash. So I told them if I promise I won’t crash, will they let me race?
“The answer was ‘No.’ … In my situation, let’s just say the minimum was three months and the recommended is six months – for me to come back with eight races left in the year and to run the risk of having this happen again just to cut it short at three months, I don’t think the reward really outweighs the risk. We’re going to go the full stay here and be committed to resolving the issue for the rest of my life.”
Casey Mears is the replacement driver for this weekend’s NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race activities in Charlotte, as well as throughout the remainder of the season.
All-Star Showdown To Kick Off 2010 Camping World Series Season
The Toyota All-Star Showdown is almost upon us, as the drivers and teams are getting ready to take to the half-mile asphalt covered oval, which is nestled between the rock quarries in Irwindale, CA.
Each year the Camping World Series which only races on tracks one mile in length or shorter, sets its eyes on this once a year event, which attracts the best short tracks drivers from around the country in this non-points event.
This is also the time of year when NASCAR’s up and coming drivers, get a chance to showcase their talents in hopes of someday landing a ride in one of NASCAR’s premier series.
The race itself means as much to these weekend warriors, as the Daytona 500 is to the Sprint cup drivers.
Just how important, and how far can a win push a driver up the ladder of success was last seen by David Gilliland, who was able to land a Busch series ride after his win back in 2005.
With the race only nine days away, the fans are hoping to see a repeat of last season’s spectacle which resembled a movie script out of the Wild, Wild, West, instead of a typical short track race on your average Saturday night.
There was plenty of action both on, and off the track. Qualifying itself took on a whole new role.
Chris Johnson, who was a Camping World Series rookie last season, and also a local talent driving the No. 50 unsponsored car of Teamcassracing electrified the crowd and grabbed his first pole award after only his third attempt while racing in this prestigious lower tier series.
This was all it took to get the crowd of about 5,000 to shake off the last of the rain drops that blanketed the grandstands, and settle in for what would be one of Irwindales most memorable nights of racing.
As the National Anthem played, and the fireworks filled the cloudy rain soaked sky, little did the fans know that a bigger firework show was only a couple of hours away.
As the night wore on, the drivers continued to give the fans their moneys worth with some very exciting racing.
Lap after lap the drivers bumped, and battled their way underneath a cloudy sky that looked more menacing then Ron Hornaday Jr’s No. 33 MM1 sponsored race car.
Hornaday managed to cause three accidents, including a hard hit that took out race leader Brian Ickler on lap 141.
Ickler would not return to the war, but he would leave the event as the driver who led the most laps.
One by one, the track continued to gobble up driver after driver, never realizing that the biggest accident would take place while coming around the final corner.
On lap 234 Alex Haase would bring out the last caution of night with a blown engine, which would set-up a 10 lap shootout for the Camping World All-Star championship trophy.
With only six laps left in the race, it would be Bowles, and Kobyluck pinching Sellers into Logano, causing Logano to mildly scrape the turn three wall.
This move was the prelude to the exciting finish, which would take place in just a few short minutes.
As the white flag waved, Sellers who was leading the race heading into turn three took a hard hit from Logano who came from the bottom of the track after having a run on him. The hit knocked into Sellers into the wall just a few feet short, from what would have been his first All-Star win.
Sellers in turn would catch Bowles, and Logano would cross the stripe inches ahead of 2006 winner, Matt Kobyluck. It was then that NASCAR would make the announcement that Logano was penalized for aggressive driving, and the win was handed over to second place finisher Matt Kobyluck.
It was a sweet victory for two-time winner Kobyluck, who started the race in a backup car when he hit the wall during practice in his primary car.
Logano will be back, along with two-time winner Matt Kobyluck, and 2005 winner David Gilliland.
2008 Pole winner Chris Johnson will not be back this season, instead Roush Fenway back-up driver Auggie Vidovich will take over the No. 50 Teamcassracing Chevrolet for the 2010 season.
Logano who will be making his third start after going to victory lane his first time racing in the event in 2007, is hoping to match Kobyluck as the second driver to win this race twice.
“I’m really excited to have an opportunity to get back out to the Toyota Speedway for the NASCAR Toyota All-Star Showdown,” Logano said. “I had a lot of fun last year and we are going try and get the trophy back this year.”
Logano will carry the bright orange colors of Home Depot as his sponsor, along with his Nationwide crew chief Kevin Kidd.
“We are really excited to have The Home Depot on board with us for the weekend,” Logano said. “Mike Olson from Fadden Racing stepped up and is going to provide us a solid car for the weekend. We have Kevin Kidd coming out with us to call the race so we feel like we have a pretty good shot.”
Gilliland, who calls Toyota Speedway his home track, is also looking forward to adding another All-Start trophy to his own case after winning his first showdown back in 2005.
“This event was always like our Daytona 500 when I raced on the West Coast,” Gilliland said. “It’s always fun for me to go back and visit a lot of the people who were such a huge part of getting me to where I am today. We have had a lot of success at Irwindale and always enjoy racing there.”
Jason Bowles, Eric Holmes, Jim Inglebright, David Mayhew, and Steve Park will also be making return visits in hopes of getting their first showdown victories.
The showdown will be run the weekend of January 29-30, at the Toyota Speedway of Irwindale which is located in Irwindale, CA.
Schrader to drive the No. 82 in the Shootout
Red Bull Racing said on Thursday that NASCAR veteran Ken Schrader will participate in the Budweiser Shootout in their No. 82 Red Bull Toyota, which will be driven full-time by Scott Speed this season. The announcement comes after NASCAR recently amended the eligibility rules for the shootout, which made Speed ineligible. However, the new rules allowed for Schrader to qualifying because he is a past winner of the Budweiser Shootout and has competed in the series within the past two seasons.
“Kenny’s desire and dedication to NASCAR has always made him a favorite among fans and throughout the garage area,” Red Bull Racing vice president and general manager Jay Frye said. “We’re excited he approached us with the idea and are looking forward to giving him the opportunity he deserves and has earned.”
Brian Vickers is also eligible for the race and will drive the No. 83 Red Bull Toyota and act as Schrader’s teammate for the race.
“I am tremendously excited to be in a top-caliber car,” Schrader said. “Pairing up with a strong teammate like Brian Vickers and the whole Red Bull organization for this event has me on Cloud 9.”
Practice sessions for the Bud Shootout begin on Thursday, Feb. 4 at 5:00 p.m. ET. The second session begins later that night at 6:30 p.m. ET. At 8:00 p.m. ET, the drawing for the starting positions will be performed for the race which is scheduled for Saturday, Feb. 6 at 8:10 p.m. ET.
Car Wrapping Isn’t Just for Gift Giving Anymore
Joey Logano had just qualified his No. 20 GameStop-sponsored Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota seventh, for the Saturday afternoon Nationwide race at Auto Club Speedway back on Feb. 29.
The cars originally unloaded from the team’s hauler both had matching black shiny paint jobs, along with big bright orange numbers on both sides of the car, and the customary number on the middle of the roof.
Written across the hood was the name “Killzone” in yellow lettering, along with a pair of menacing eyes that depicted one of the video game and entertainment software retailer GameStop’s many titles.
This innovative transformation–being used by enthusiasts around the country, which completely replaces the current paint scheme, takes the automobile from mild to wild, or is used for advertising purposes.
I say “Replace” instead of “Repaint” because there is no painting involved when applying a car wrap, which is simply a vinyl sticker that covers the whole car.
Before NASCAR started using vinyl about five years ago, teams would actually paint the designs on the cars, which could take three to four days depending on the design and sponsor of the car.
The race team had to experiment with the different colors in order to get the right shades, and that often took four or five trips through the paint shop—before company officials, including lawyers needed to approve sponsor designs.
Once approved, the paint schemes had to pass through NASCAR’s massive marketing, legal, and licensing process before they were allowed on the track.
This was a very timely and expensive process, especially if NASCAR or the sponsor didn’t like what they saw.
Now that it’s all done by computer, it takes a day or two to make the approved decal and another four to six hours to remove and apply it.
Car wraps have quickly become not only the easiest way to paint a vehicle, but are also the most cost effective because they can be removed with relative ease, making it much less expensive to change from one advertisement to another.
The wrap itself comes in many pieces that fit together like a giant jigsaw puzzle, and is usually installed by two or three people, depending on the size of the vehicle. Once the wrap is completely fit into place windows, grille, and other areas need to be cut away.
In the case of Logano’s Nationwide car three installers worked on the wrap because the job had to be finished by the end of the Nationwide race, so the car could be put back in the hauler and sent on its way to the next race in Las Vegas.
Most custom paint jobs can start anywhere from $10,000, and quickly escalate depending on the type of paint being used and the design chosen.
Not only is custom painting expensive, it is also time consuming—taking anywhere from a few weeks to a few months, from start to finish.
The cost to transform the No. 20 GameStop black Toyota that Logano drove at Auto Club Speedway, into the No. 20 First Interstate Batteries green Toyota that Hamlin drove in Las Vegas, was in the neighborhood of $3,000.
Consider the cost of stripping, sanding, and painting the car each week, and vinyl wrapping becomes one of the few areas where teams can achieve much needed savings in todays hard-hit economy.
Notebook: Montoya pleased with addition of McMurray; RWR to run Toyotas
CORAL GABLES, Fla.—Juan Pablo Montoya, who qualified for the 2009 Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup in his third full year in the series, sees the addition of Jamie McMurray as a positive move for Earnhardt Ganassi Racing.
The team announced Wednesday night that McMurray will drive the No. 1 Chevrolet in the Cup series next year. McMurray replaces Martin Truex Jr., who will drive the No. 56 Michael Waltrip Racing Toyota in 2010.
The hiring represents a reunion between team owner Chip Ganassi and McMurray, who drove for Ganassi from 2002 to 2005 before moving to Roush Fenway Racing.
“Chip is really committed to building the team,” Montoya said Thursday. “Jamie is a guy with talent who can bring a lot to the table, so I’m pretty excited to have him as a teammate.”
Montoya, who lives in Miami, has never won a NASCAR race on an oval track; his only win came in 2007 at the Infineon Raceway road course. To score a breakthrough in Sunday’s Ford 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway, he’ll have to overcome distractions.
“Well, we’ll come here and run as hard as we can, like we do every week, and hopefully what we bring to the table this week is good enough,” he said. “It’s a little frenzied (racing at the home track). A lot of people come here (asking for tickets). It’s more of a headache than a good thing.”
Wallace to run Toyotas
Rusty Wallace Racing will switch from Chevrolet to Toyota next season, with Steve Wallace and Brendan Gaughan running the Nos. 66 and 62 Camrys, respectively, in NASCAR’s Nationwide Series.
In addition, team owner Rusty Wallace has signed a personal services agreement under which the former Cup champion and current ESPN analyst will represent the Toyota brand nationally. Wallace owns a Toyota dealership in Morristown, Tenn.
“Our team’s decision on manufacturers involved input from a lot of people within the organization,” Wallace said. “We decided that, at the end of the day, our goal as a race team is simple: to win races and championships. Thus, we all had to take a long look at which manufacturer partner could best help us reach that goal.”
Earnhardt Ganassi Racing staying with Chevrolet
FORT WORTH, Texas—Earnhardt Ganassi Racing will stay with Chevrolet as the manufacturer for its racing teams next season, ending a courtship with Toyota, multiple sources said Sunday.
That’s good news for the Earnhardt-Childress engine alliance, which supplies power for the Sprint Cup cars driven by Juan Pablo Montoya (No. 42) and Martin Truex Jr. (No. 1). Truex will leave the team at the end of the season to drive for Michael Waltrip Racing next year. EGR is still weighing potential replacements for Truex.
Neither team owner Chip Ganassi nor president Steve Lauletta would confirm a decision has been made.
“It’s nobody’s business,” Ganassi said before Sunday’s Dickies 500 Sprint Cup Series race at Texas Motor Speedway. “I’ll know when I read it in the Sporting News.”
“Yes or no or we’re not saying,” Lauletta said.
Ganassi met with Mark Kent, manager of General Motors Racing on Sunday, but neither Ganassi nor Chevrolet representatives would disclose the content of the meeting. Chevrolet Sprint Cup program manager Alba Colon said it is company policy not to comment on negotiations with its partners.
Ganassi had discussed a possible engine deal with J.D. Gibbs, president of Joe Gibbs Racing, which runs Toyotas, but the decision to stay with Chevy makes those negotiations moot.
Notebook: Toyota reaffirms commitment to NASCAR racing
FORT WORTH, Texas — Don’t expect Toyota’s recently-announced withdrawal from Formula One racing to signal a pullback from NASCAR racing.
But don’t expect it to be a windfall for Toyota’s stock-car effort, either.
Toyota Racing Development president Lee White said Saturday at Texas Motor Speedway that the Formula One pullout “should have no effect whatsoever on our NASCAR program, our NASCAR plans and our NASCAR future. We remain completely committed to NASCAR — and NASCAR is completely committed to us.”
Asked whether any of the estimated $300-$500 million saved from the F1 budget would accrue to the NASCAR program, White demurred.
“The economy remains very challenging for the automotive industry,” he said. “So we don’t expect one penny of that reduction in cost would come here to benefit our NASCAR program.”
Toyota currently supports eight teams in NASCAR’s Sprint Cup Series.
AND BABY MAKES THIRD
In the wake of his victory in Saturday’s O’Reilly Challenge, Kyle Busch reflected on what might have been as he closes in on the Nationwide Series championship. Busch has eight victories in the series, but he also boasts 11 second-place finishes this season.
“You know what would be impressive is if those 11 second-place finishes were wins,” Busch said. “That would be 19 wins. That’s what’s stupid. That’s what’s silly — if that could have been.
“The only thing worse than finishing second on a day is when you finish second and something to a pregnant woman — and then you’re third.”
NEW ENGINES? WHO KNEW?
In Saturday’s O’Reilly Challenge Nationwide race at Texas Motor Speedway, Jason Leffler posted his second straight third-place finish in the series. You might find the key to Leffler’s improved performance under the hood of his No. 38 Toyota.
Team owner Todd Braun recently opted to change engine suppliers from Triad to Arrington. For a couple of weeks, the switch was a well-kept secret.
“Everybody knows now,” Leffler said after a third-place qualifying effort on Friday. “It was split there for awhile (between Braun’s teams). We had Triad, they did a great job — we had no motor failures with Triad at all.
“It was a change. I don’t know if it was philosophies there, (but) Todd Braun made a call to change engine manufacturers to get ready for next year. It was something I was worried about at the start because we had such good luck with Triad. I’m not worried anymore — I’m pretty happy.”
BLUE DEUCE WIN WORTH $1 MILLION
Kurt Busch could make a Michael McGee a millionaire by winning Sunday’s Dickies 500. McGee, the race sponsor’s American Worker of the Year, chose Busch in a random drawing Saturday at Texas Motor Speedway.
If Busch puts the No. 2 Dodge in victory lane, McGee collects the million-dollar prize. McGee is an agricultural teacher from Broken Bow, Okla. He also owns a horse training business. For his selection as Dickies American Worker of the Year, McGee already has won $50,000 and an all-access VIP trip to the races this weekend.
Rogers in, Addington out as Kyle Busch’s crew chief
Kyle Busch, who hasn’t won a NASCAR Sprint Cup race since Aug. 22 at Bristol, will get a new crew chief after Sunday’s Amp Energy 500 at Talladega Superspeedway, Joe Gibbs Racing announced Tuesday.
JGR has tapped Dave Rogers, crew chief for the organization’s No. 20 Nationwide Series car, to replace Steve Addington, who guided Busch to 11 victories in the Cup series in the No. 18 Toyota. Since winning eight of the first 22 races in 2008, however, Busch has four wins in 46 races and he failed to qualify for the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup this year.
Addington will be reassigned to another position within the organization.
Rogers led the No. 20 team to the Nationwide Series owners championship last year with a roster of four drivers—Tony Stewart, Denny Hamlin, Joey Logano and Busch—who collectively posted nine victories and six poles. The No. 20 team has won five times this season under Rogers’ leadership.
The crew chief change comes two days after Busch recorded his best Cup finish since Bristol, a fourth in the Tums Fast Relief 500 at Martinsville. Addington won the Wypall Wipers Crew Chief of the Race award after his strategic pit calls helped Busch charge to the front from the 41st starting position.
“We evaluate all of our teams on an ongoing basis and believe this is a change that will make the 18 team stronger as we prepare for next season,” JGR president J.D. Gibbs said in a team release. “We think highly of Steve and the job he has done, and we look forward to him remaining a part of the JGR family.
“Dave has proven himself a talented crew chief, and we think he will work well with Kyle. We hope that by making the move following this weekend’s race at Talladega they can use the final three weeks of this season to begin working on communication and setups for the 2010 season.”
Vickers takes a big hit in the points at Kansas
After the Price Chopper 400, Brian Vickers wouldn’t say his hopes of a championship are out of the window but admitted that his struggles Sunday that included an engine failure weren’t exactly what the team had hoped to receive this weekend.
“Anything is possible,” Vickers said. “I don’t think we’re out of it (the championship run) yet but it definitely doesn’t help. It hurts quite a bit.”
Vickers was literally all over the track throughout the day, fighting the popular loose condition throughout the entire event. Besides the engine failure to put the team “out of their misery,” as Vickers put it, the No. 83 Red Bull Toyota went for a spin out of turn four and slid through the infield grass during green-flag pit stops.
By the time the race had ended, Kansas wasn’t a home sweet home away from home.
“I just want to get out of Kansas to be honest with you,” Vickers said. “It’s been a long weekend for me. I thought we had a good car today and we started out a little tight. It got worse and worse, and never could get a handle on it. I was up on top of the track trying to chase grip and find some grip. I got into the marbles and just lost it and that was completely my fault and I feel bad about it. I hate it for the guys. We just weren’t as good as whole as we needed to be today. We just absolutely weren’t. The engine was the only thing that just put us out of our misery. It’s not what we wanted, obviously. We were really looking to get to a mile- and-a-half and have a good run, but what do you do ?”
With the 37th place finish, Vickers is now 12th in points with a 250-point difference between him and points leader Mark Martin. Though the team isn’t close to being eliminated mathematically, with only a 160-point gain possible each race, a comeback isn’t likely unless other teams find trouble in the chase; namely the Hendrick Motorsports trio of Martin, Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon.
Gilliland to drive second RGM car at Kansas
The NASCAR Sprint Cup Series entry list now shows David Gilliland as the driver of the No. 04 Toyota of Robby Gordon Motorsports. Gilliland subbed for Robby Gordon and the No. 7 team earlier this season and has spent most of the year with TRG Motorsports.
Gordon is still on the entry list with the No. 7 MAPEI/Menards Toyota for the race, making Gilliland the second Robby Gordon Motorsports car on the 46-car entry list for the Price Chopper 400 at Kansas Speedway this weekend.
Gilliland will have to qualify for the race based on his time during Friday afternoon’s qualifying session.
The team has not made a formal announcement on the matter. Doug Richert will be the crew chief for this weekend.
Red Bull Racing extends contract with Toyota
Team Red Bull Racing is all set for next year, as the team announced that they have agreed to an extension with Toyota that will take them through the next three years, the same length as their first contract with Toyota.
“Our partnership with Toyota has been a critical element to the success of Red Bull Racing Team,” Jay Frye, RBRT vice president and general manager, said. “Both Red Bull Racing Team and Toyota share a common goal of being a championship-contending team. Toyota has supplied the engine and technical support we need to get our teams into victory lane and now the Chase for the Championship. We look forward to the future with Toyota.”
In Red Bull Racing’s three years as a team, they have posted one win, nine top-five and 27 top-10 finishes.
The team announced earlier this year that Brian Vickers will return after agreeing to a contract extension. The team’s rookie driver, Scott Speed, already had an agreement to drive next season for the team based on his original contract.
The Cool Down Lap: Bristol brings clarity to Chase picture
If you think Saturday night’s race at Bristol Motor Speedway did nothing to clarify, the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup picture, take another look.
Yes, the Sharpie 500 did tighten the spread between positions seven through 14 in the Cup standings. And, yes, the race did put two drivers who seemed relatively comfortable entering the event—Juan Pablo Montoya and Kasey Kahne—back in limbo.
In reality, though, the race at Bristol narrowed the field. Of the drivers outside the top 12, only Kyle Busch (Saturday’s winner) and Brian Vickers (a miraculous 12th at Bristol) have a chance to replace a driver in one of the Chase-eligible positions. Of the current top 12, Matt Kenseth (12th) and Kasey Kahne (11th) are most vulnerable. There are two more races before the field is set.
Though he fell from 13th to 14th in the standings, Vickers stayed in the picture by surviving, thanks to two free passes back to the lead lap, astute strategy from crew chief Ryan Pemberton and the ability to stay out of trouble on a track that historically has been a problem for Vickers.
“(It) wasn’t one of our best finishes, but it definitely could have been worse,” Vickers said. “Bristol has never been one of my better tracks in a Cup car for whatever reason. Ryan made some great calls for track position, and we were able to get the lucky dog twice.
“It sucks losing a spot in the points, but don’t count us out—this team doesn’t give up. We are still very much in this.”
No argument there. Vickers, who trails Kenseth by 39 points, should have speed for the Sept. 6 race at Atlanta, where he finished fifth in March. The test for Vickers will come Sept. 12 at Richmond, where he claimed one of his series-best six poles in May before dropping to 15th at the finish. That broke a string of eight straight results of 24th or worse at the .75-mile short track.
For Busch, the key is Atlanta, where his finishes have been all over the map. He won the spring race there in 2008 and finished fifth last fall, before Atlanta was replaced in the Chase by California for the 2009 season. Before that, he ran 20th or worse in three straight races and finished 18th at the 1.5-mile track in the most recent race there, in March.
Complicating the issue will be Busch’s quest for a Nationwide Series title. With Atlanta being a two-day show, Busch won’t have much time to discuss strategy with Cup crew chief Steve Addington, given the time demands of practice in both series and a Nationwide race the night before.
“Atlanta, we have a little bit of work to do,” Busch said. “We weren’t as good as we needed to be there this spring. There’s not going to be any time for me to sit with Steve at all next week—or two weeks—in Atlanta. It’s all a one-day show for Nationwide. I’m going to be running back and forth all over the place.
“Richmond, we feel like we can go there and run strong. That’s a place where I don’t qualify well, sort of like (Bristol), but when the race turns around, we seem to run well. We can work our way steadily up toward the front. We’ll do what we need to do.
“I think my biggest concern is going to be Atlanta, just trying to get through Atlanta with a solid top-10 finish. If we can do that, I think we’ll be okay.”
Those who look only at the numbers will point out that 15th-place Clint Bowyer (112 points behind 12th) and 16th-place David Reutimann (160 points back) are still mathematically alive. Realistically, they are Sunday morning breakfast toast after bouncing off their teammates and finishing 21st and 17th, respectively.
Last year, after 24 races, there were 14 drivers competing for 12 Chase positions. Practically speaking, the exact same is true this season.
With 89 points separating seventh-place Ryan Newman from 14th place Vickers, what’s far less clear is exactly who those 12 will be.
Kimberly-Clark steps up with Ambrose
BRISTOL, Tenn.—A renewal of the partnership between JTG/Daugherty Racing and Michael Waltrip Racing has yet to be signed, but it’s a matter of when, not if.
The two sides have agreed in principle to extend the agreement that puts Marcos Ambrose’s No. 47 Toyota on the track in NASCAR’s Sprint Cup Series. And on Saturday, the pot was sweetened by the addition of another primary sponsor for Ambrose’s car.
“We anticipate signing it quickly and being with them next year,” team owner Tad Geschickter said after the announcement that Kimberly-Clark (makers of Kleenex, Scott paper products and Cottonelle bath tissue) would assume primary sponsorship for five races next season, including the Daytona 500, and would maintain a presence on the car for the entire 2010 season.
All told, Geschickter said, Ambrose will have as many as seven primary sponsors sharing space on his car next year. And the team won’t have a problem allocating the additional resources they’ll receive from the Kimberly-Clark sponsorship.
“You have to keep finding new ways to go fast,” Geschickter said. “In racing, I’ve found over 15 years that you spend everything you have. We’ve got a great engineering department over there (at MWR) led by Steve Hallam. There are a lot of ideas we want to try. We want to be sure we’re on the cutting edge of what the next big idea is.”
Ambrose’s cars are built in-house at MWR, which also affords JTG/Daugherty its full range of technical expertise.
“We’ve got a great blue-chip sponsors around us,” said Ambrose, who also carries the colors of Clorox, Kingsford and Little Debbie. “Now it’s just a matter of going out and winning races for them.”
Red Bull Racing working on deal with Toyota
With all their drivers signed to contracts through next year, Team Red Bull Racing now puts their focus on securing a manufacturer for their drivers, Brian Vickers and Scott Speed, to race with.
However, after many rumors during the summer about a manufacturer change at the team, vice president & general manager of Red Bull Racing, Jay Frye, says that the team is working towards a new agreement with their current manufacturer, Toyota.
“We’re working really hard right now to get that (deal) done,” Frye said. “That is obviously the next step in our progression to lock that down for a few years. Toyota has been a great partner. We’re working through a lot of different scenarios with them. I would anticipate everything being sured up at some point in the near future with them.”
Earlier this season, the most prominent rumor was that the team would switch from Toyota to Chevrolet and draw from Hendrick Motorsports for support and that Brad Keselowski, currently looking for a full-time Sprint Cup Series ride, would drive for a third team at Red Bull.
However, Frye also shot down that possibility, saying that both of their current teams will need to perform well week-in and week-out before they entertain the possibility of adding a third team.
“There’s no goal to have a third team at this point,” Frye said. “In my opinion, we have to get both our two teams both competing at a high level every week before you would think of expanding. We’ve got one team that’s competing at a high level every week.”
Out of the two teams, Vickers and the No. 83 Toyota is clearly the best performing and most consistent of the two teams. Since their third DNF of the season at Loudon on June 21, the team has hit a hot-streak, calling their 11th place finish at Watkins Glen their worst of the six-race stretch since.
Vickers’s team also scored Red Bull Racing’s first win since the team began racing in October of 2006 when they attempted to qualify for their first event with Bill Elliott.
The team’s other driver, Speed, is currently in his rookie season and is making just his 28th career start this weekend at Bristol. According to Frye, the team is now looking for improvement from the Manteca, Calif. native as he begins to go to tracks for the second time.
“Scott, obviously (at the) part of his development (where) we’re getting to phase two of that,” Frye said. “We’re going to race tracks for the second time and obviously we need to see improvement from the first races. Michigan was the first one and there was (an improvement), although the finish was relatively the same, the performance was better throughout the course of the race. Obviously, your second race needs to be an improvement from the first race. So, that’s kinda where we are at with him.”
Vickers and the No. 83 team are in the midst of a battle to make it into the chase in just the teams second full-year in the series. Currently ranked 13th in Sprint Cup Series driver points, the team is just 12 points removed from the top-12 chase field with three races to go before the chase field is set.
Speed and the No. 84 team, however, are in a different battle. However, it’s a battle to secure a spot in the top-35 so the team can come to the track and be assured of a starting position. Currently, the team is ranked 36th, 160 points behind the No. 34 team owned by Teresa Earnhardt. The team will be fighting for the next 13 races to become solidified in the top-35 so they can start of the first five races of the 2010 season locked in to the starting gird based on NASCAR rules.
Vickers signs multi-year extension with Red Bull Racing
After Brian Vickers scored his first win with the team Sunday at Michigan, Team Red Bull Racing announced on Tuesday that they have signed a multi-year deal to keep Vickers and his current crew chief, Ryan Pemberton, with the No. 83 Toyota.
Vickers joined Team Red Bull in 2007, posting one win, eight top-five and 22 top-tens, including seven poles–six of which have come this season.
“I’m thrilled,” Vickers said. “This has been a long time coming, and there is no where else I would rather be. I am looking forward to building on what we have started the last couple of years. It is an interesting experience being with a team from the ground up – going through the growing pains, then successes, together. I am so proud to have been able to bring this team their first win.”
Jay Frye, Vice President and General Manager of Team Red Bull Racing, echoed Vickers’s sentiments.
“The team is continuing to prove that it is a consistent force week in and week out,” Frye said. “Brian has been here from the beginning and he continues to be a vital piece of the puzzle with regards to our ultimate goal of building Red Bull Racing into a consistent contender.”
The Thomasville, N.C. native is currently 13th in points after his win at Michigan, just 12 points away from the 12th cutoff.
