New team for Chevy?

Quote :

Red Bull to Chevy? It is very possible that Brian Vickers, winner of the pole at Michigan International Speedway on Friday, could be behind the wheel of the #83 Red Bull Chevy next season. Yes, Chevy. Over the last three years, the Red Bull program has worked to gain speed but has experienced some reliability issues with the Toyota Racing Development engines. Red Bull's contract with Toyota is up at the end of this season. And although General Motors likely cannot afford to support additional teams at this time, Austrian billionaire Dietrich Mateschitz, who owns race teams in both NASCAR and Formula One, could certainly afford to take on the role as Chevy parts customer. If Red Bull Racing was to make the switch to Chevy engines, Hendrick Motorsports would be the logical choice of vendor. Given Jay Frye's relationship with HMS, most recently during the management of Ginn Racing and MB2 Motorsports prior to that, there's a familiarity as a technical customer.

~Jayski~

Don't think now is a very good time to be leaving Toyota, especially for Chevy.

I would ike to see Brian Vickers in a Ford but to see any thing going in that direction, FORD must prove themselfs with this FR9 engine. This is FORDS first racing engine and I got a feeling it will do the best job but-------we need a F-1 OR IRL ENGINEER to help- us get the dam COT to turn in the corners. Andrew, if you have notice, Waltrip hired a F-1 Engineers at the end of the last season and his teams have taken off. BTW I don't care how good Mikey's car will run HE JUST CAN'T DRIVE. (I know you don't agree but thats the way I see it)

That F1 guy has seemed to help MWR out a lot. Mikey doesn't do that great behind the wheel, but he is doing a very good job as team owner - he has that team (well at least the 00 and 47) running competitively nearly every week. Looks like Reutimann is even going to make the Chase this year.

I think Mikey will be gone after this year; he realizes that he is hurting the 55 team. I think we'll see Martin Truex in the NAPA car in 2010 & Bass Pro Shops goes to the 39 to share sponsorship with Army.

No doubt Waltrip doing a lot better since hiring that F-1 Engineer and I can't help thinking how much better YATES would be doing had they stuck with ROBERT YATES PLAN to go with NH/L. Would have been a whole different outcome to DOUG'S NEW TEAM. (still can't get over being a ONE CAR TEAM)

While Yates may technically be a one car team. In all reality, they are a 2 car team, just as they always have been. Bobby Labonte and the 96 team do everything out of the Yates shop. Hall of Fame Racing exists in name only.

I believe that Robert Yates was the one who pulled the plug on the Newman Haas Lanagan deal, if I'm not mistaken. So, blame Robert for that, not Doug.

TeamBlueOval wrote:

While Yates may technically be a one car team. In all reality, they are a 2 car team, just as they always have been. Bobby Labonte and the 96 team do everything out of the Yates shop. Hall of Fame Racing exists in name only.

I believe that Robert Yates was the one who pulled the plug on the Newman Haas Lanagan deal, if I'm not mistaken. So, blame Robert for that, not Doug.

What I read at that time , Doug wanted JJ Yeley and Hass was not moving fast enough in getting him and it was his choice to go with Roush. (I think was his plan from the beginning) It certainly would never be Roberts Choice. It was at this time that Robert decided to retire.

You can't blame everything on Doug. The team wasn't running very well when Robert retired. It's obvious that he made mistakes as well.

TeamBlueOval wrote:

You can't blame everything on Doug. The team wasn't running very well when Robert retired. It's obvious that he made mistakes as well.

OH there isn't any doubt about that, but this MESS----- is all on Doug. Just waiting to see how he is going to get out of it. I have some ideas LOL

Robert left Doug with no sponsors and two teams.

Doug now has two fully sponsored cars.

Sure, they're not running great, but they're not all that bad either.

Seems like Doug has improved things.

I don't don't what you are looking at but I have never seen YATES running so poorly that I don't even get upset at the races. Just chalk it up to seat time.
#96 is a HOF owned team. Don't care what shop they are working out of. Why not say the same thing about Said being a YATES car.

Said's NoFear team is no longer operating. They are working on a merger with another team to come back for the full season in 2010. That 96 car is a YATES car, ask anyone. Hall of Fame Racing exists in name only. It's in the Yates shop with Yates people working on it, Yates/Roush engines, Roush/Yates chasis, bodies, etc.

Never seen Yates running so bad? How about 2007, Robert's last year. It was PATHETIC. If Ricky could get a top-30 finish, it was something to get exited about!

TeamBlueOval wrote:

Said's NoFear team is no longer operating. They are working on a merger with another team to come back for the full season in 2010. That 96 car is a YATES car, ask anyone. Hall of Fame Racing exists in name only. It's in the Yates shop with Yates people working on it, Yates/Roush engines, Roush/Yates chasis, bodies, etc.

Never seen Yates running so bad? How about 2007, Robert's last year. It was PATHETIC. If Ricky could get a top-30 finish, it was something to get exited about!

and still were in a better spot than they are now. DJ, Sadler UPs all in a bunch and he still did better than what Doug has done this year. HOF can pull out anytime they choose unless your saying that HOF is in name only SUCH AS YATES IS IN NAME ONLY WITH ROUSH .SAME THING
Now we have three within the ROUSH EMPIRE. BTW most everyone thinks ROUSH owns YATES. No different than what you are saying about HOF & YATES.

THIS YEAR HAS BEEN PATHETIC, ASK ANY YATES FAN--RICKY WAS THE EXCITEMENT BUT NOW MOST YATES FANS HAVE GONE ELSEWHERE.

I have to agree with both of you with some points. This year has been pathetic..... performance standpoint, probably worse than last year. But look at it this year they have sponsors and they are millions of times better the year Ricky and Gilly were the drivers.

^ But during that season, they both had sponsors as well.

Red Bull isn't quite on the same page they were last year. I don't see this happening. With GM cutting funding to NASCAR teams, and Hendrick can't just start sourcing out to every other Chevy team, can he? Red Bull has done a great job from starting from scratch- they just seem to be missing one little thing. Vickers is solid as usual but Speed has been a disaster.

Everything was coming together for Red Bull last year - then they fired Allmendinger.

Yeah, that was a dumb move (at least IMO). If AJ were still driving, I think it'd be a safe bet that the team would have both cars in the top-25 in points.

AJ was a disaster at first also...... after some actual experience (something Speed is lacking) and time AJ was able to turn around...... then RBR fired them..... makes about as much sence as hiring a Presbyterian pastor to be a Pope imo

Quote :

UPDATE: Red Bull is in its last year of a three-year contract with Toyota and that's led to a report that the team could switch manufacturers to Chevrolet and receive equipment from Hendrick Motorsports, as Stewart-Haas Racing does. The team fields cars for Brian Vickers, who is starting on the pole for today's race, and rookie Scott Speed. "We're going through lots of different scenarios right now,'' said Jay Frye, the team's general manager. "It's possible they won't want us to come back. It's possible. Or it's possible that they want us to come back but they can't for some reason do that. Anything is possible at this point. They've been a great partner. We'll see here shortly what's the next step.''(Roanoke Times)(6-21-2009)

Sorry, but I have no respect for Team Red Bull. If all they're going to do is fire a talented driver when he showed improvement just so a one-hit wonder can race Cup, there's no reason for me to root for them. MWR is really the only Toyota team I like anyways.

AJ had a very rough time and he came around. When he was starting to run top 15, they release him and bring in Speed. Now, Speed is having a very rough year. It's the same cycle over again- why did they do that? I'm not a big fan of Speed and I like AJ, so I'm glad AJ is over at RPM now.

I'm glad that he has found a home at RPM too, but I think Red Bull is still a more competitive team when they have the right driver in the car.

I agree. Vickers has done a very good job in the car. I don't know though, it just seems like there is always something a little off there and they fall off during a race.

I have noticed the same thing. They seem to be dominant the first half of a race when they qualify well, but then they fall back.