Casey Mears, Scott Speed get new crew chiefs as Red Bull teams swap personnel
Jay Frye, general manager and vice president of Red Bull Racing, talks to reporters at Pocono Raceway about changes to the Red Bull teams. // Sam Cranston, NASCAR Illustrated
LONG POND, Pa. – Red Bull Racing officials are hoping a switch in personnel between their two NASCAR Sprint Cup Series teams can jumpstart what has suddenly become a battle in futility for the Toyota organization.
“Obviously, with the situation the team is in, we’re able to experiment,” Jay Frye, general manager and vice president of Red Bull Racing, said Friday at Pocono Raceway.
“This is nothing that’s new – other teams have done the same [in similar situations].”
Earlier this week, the organization announced that Ryan Pemberton, previously crew chief for the No. 83 team, would move over to the No. 82 team and driver Scott Speed. Jimmy Elledge, crew chief for Speed, is now crew chief of the No. 83 and driver Casey Mears.
Key support personnel (car chiefs, engineers and shock and tire specialists) were included in the move.
The swap comes nearly two weeks after Brian Vickers, driver of the No. 83 entry, announced he would be sidelined for the remainder of the season due to health issues. He has been replaced by Mears.
That Elledge has worked with Mears previously (when both were at Chip Ganassi Racing) was a factor in the switch, Frye said.
“They’ve had some success,” Frye said. “We expect them to continue to have success.
“Ryan and Scott – this is a new element for Scott. We think Ryan can help Scott go to the next level, so we’re quite enthused about what we did this week.”
Vickers was 12th in the points standings after the first six Cup races before three consecutive finishes outside the top-25 dropped him to 25th. He made only two more starts, finishing 20th at Richmond and 10th at Darlington, before being diagnosed with blood clots. He will miss the remainder of the season while undergoing treatment.
Speed was 12th in points after the season’s first four races, but the team has since fallen off the pace. He enters Sunday’s Gillette Fusion Proglide 500 26th in points.
“Obviously, this has given us an opportunity to do some things differently,” Frye said. “We still need to compete at a high level this season, but this gives us a chance to look at some different scenarios for next season, mainly with Ryan and Scott.”
Frye said a possible driver change that would put Red Bull driver Mattias Ekstrom in the No. 83 for this year’s road-course races is still being evaluated.
Ekstrom tested for the team recently at Virginia International Raceway.
“He did a great job and, then again, we’ll know more on that next week,” Frye said. “We were worried about getting him up to speed in a day. We only had one day that we could test at VIR and he was up to speed in an hour – less than an hour.
“The guy is a phenomenal talent. He actually did some really great things with our team. We do this every week and there are times that we don’t look kind of outside the box … then you bring somebody in like that with their fresh approach and they can give you some pointers on some different things, and he was very helpful.”
