Red Bull Racing won't expand to three Cup teams in 2010
Red Bull Racing general manager Jay Frye told reporters Friday at Bristol Motor Speedway that the two-car NASCAR Sprint Cup Series team will not be adding an additional entry in 2010. // LaDon George, NASCAR Scene
BRISTOL, Tenn. – Red Bull Racing general manager Jay Frye says there are no plans as of now for the organization to expand to three NASCAR Sprint Cup teams next season.
Red Bull, in its third season in NASCAR’s top series, currently fields entries for driver Brian Vickers and rookie Scott Speed.
“There’s really no goal to have a third team at this point, in my opinion,” Frye said on Friday at Bristol Motor Speedway. “We have to get our two teams both competing in the high levels every week before you would think about expanding. We’ve got one team [Vickers’ No. 83 team] that’s competing at a high level every week. Scott, obviously part of his development now, we’re getting into phase two of that where we’re going to race tracks for a second time, and obviously we need to see an improvement from the first races.”
While Vickers, who gave the organization its first win last Sunday at Michigan, is 13th in the Cup standings and just 12 points outside of contention for a spot in the Chase For The Sprint Cup, Speed and his team aren’t in the top 35 in owner points.
Speed has just one top-10 finish – a fifth at Talladega – in 22 starts this season and has failed to qualify three times.
Frye hopes Speed’s results will improve as he gains more seat time and revisits tracks, such as last weekend at Michigan, where he had only competed once before.
Speed finished 34th last weekend, up only three spots from where he finished at MIS in June.
“Although the finish was relatively the same, the performance was better throughout the course of the race,” Frye said. “Obviously, the second race needs to be an improvement from the first race. That’s kind of where we’re at with him.”
As for Red Bull’s widely rumored switch from Toyotas to Chevrolets next season, Frye said negotiations are ongoing and didn’t rule anything out.
“Manufacturer-wise we’re working really hard to get that done,” he said. “That is the next step in our progression to lock that down for a few years. Again, Toyota has been a great partner, and we are working through a lot of different scenarios with them.
“I would anticipate everything being shored up at some point in the near future with them.”
