Red Bull Racing to make decision soon on Scott Speed’s future with team

By Bob Pockrass

Sunday, July 25, 2010

Scott Speed is expected to learn soon whether he will return to Red Bull Racing next season.

Jim Fluharty
NASCAR Illustrated

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INDIANAPOLIS – Red Bull Racing plans to announce in the next month whether driver Scott Speed will return to the team next year, Red Bull general manager Jay Frye confirmed Sunday at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

In his second full season of Cup racing, Speed is 26th in the standings. He was 35th last year, and while he’s nine spots better in the standings and has been running at the finish of every race this year, Speed only has two top-10 finishes and has finished on the lead lap in 10 of the 20 races.

“We should have some sort of announcement with him in the next month,” Frye said Sunday. “We need to perform. We need to do better. We started the year off pretty strong. We kind of regressed a little bit here the last little bit.

“We should have some sort of conclusion on that in the next month. Anytime you have a development-type kid and you start to go to places the third or fourth time, you should see something that [you know] something is going to happen or not. We have great hope and expectations that he gets going on. We’re evaluating where we’re at.”

The 27-year-old Speed, who competed in Formula One in 2006 and 2007, was asked Saturday about rumors that he had signed a contract extension with the organization.

“I don’t know if I’m allowed to talk about it,” Speed said. “We’ll see.”

After having a great start of the year in which he had three top-20 finishes and was 12th in points, Speed has had only four top-20 finishes since then.

“It’s really tough at the moment,” said Speed, who has been associated with Red Bull for several years. “Everyone is searching. It’s a really tough atmosphere. … I’m hoping we get our stuff figured out because it sucks running like we are right now. I much more enjoyed the beginning of the year.”

As far as the driver of the other Red Bull car, Frye said that Brian Vickers’ treatments for blood clots are going well. He started a six-month program to treat the clots two months ago and has not raced since early May.

“Brian’s doing great,” Frye said. “It’s a three-to-six-month thing. In a month, we’ll know a lot more but all indicators are right now things will be fine. … We certainly have all expectations that he’ll come back, and we’re watching the progress and monitoring the progress and so far he is doing well.”