Click Here To Find Cool Nascar Items!

Since hearing in June that Red Bull was effectively pulling out of NASCAR, information about the team’s future has been very sparse.  The team’s manager, Jay Frye, has been working to try and find investors to buy the team, but his efforts have yet to pay off.  And it seems that the chances of Red Bull Racing surviving dwindle with each passing day that we don’t hear news.  There were some recent rumblings that Canadian racer Jacques Villeneuve could be a possible buyer, but his manager told Auto123.com that there has been nothing more than discussions, and that they are exploring other opportunities as well. But now, even as employees are being notified of their impending layoff, all hope might not be lost.  Recent comments from Red Bull head Dietrich Mateschitz seem to indicate that maybe Red Bull isn’t quite ready to abandon the U.S.’s largest racing series just yet.

In an article from Thursday on the British Formula 1 website, Pitpass.com, Mateschitz was asked about the closing of Red Bull’s NASCAR operation.  His response was surprising:

“This (the closing of Red Bull Racing) is not yet a final decision but we had many reasons to re-analyse our involvement with the goal of either to confirm our participation in NASCAR or to question it.”

The Pitpass.com piece goes on to say “[Mateschitz] adds that the key factors which will affect Red Bull’s decision are target groups, marketing, media values, the engine, the fact that NASCAR is a purely American series and of course success and the cost to benefit ratio.”

Wait, what? That’s quite a turnaround from the doom and gloom we were hearing from this group over the summer.  To me, that doesn’t sound like an executive who is closing up his NASCAR team at year’s end.  That sounds like Red Bull is still evaluating their involvement, and hasn’t shut the door completely on continuing to back a NASCAR operation.

To be successful moving forward though, RBR is going to need some fundamental changes and a different approach.  NASCAR isn’t Formula 1, and you can’t win races by just outspending everyone.  NASCAR is a completely different animal, and somebody should have shown Mateschitz that from the beginning.

It’s crazy that only nine weeks remain for the 2011 season, and there is still a lot we don’t know.  Undoubtedly, the face of organizations like Roush Fenway and Richard Childress Racing will be different next year.  And there are still quite a few free agent drivers that have yet to find a home for 2012 and beyond.  Let’s hope that among all this madness we don’t have to erect a headstone for Red Bull Racing.  The sport simply cannot afford to continue losing sponsors and teams at this rate.  Hopefully something will change Mateschitz’s mind, and Red Bull Racing is brought back from the brink.

TheNASCARInsiders.com

Follow the Insiders on Twitter or be a fan on Facebook!

Click Here To Find Cool Nascar Items!

Week in and week out I continue to be surprised by the performances of the two Red Bull Racing cars – it’s not a good surprised though. Despite its position as one of the better funded teams in the sport, in its fourth season Red Bull continues to struggle consistently performing well – and from what we keep hearing, team owner Deitrich Mateschitz is starting to lose his patience.

The man answering the tough questions to Mateschitz back in Austria is team GM Jay Frye – the architect behind the current iteration of Red Bull. In the years before his ascension to the helm at Red Bull, Frye worked as an executive at the now defunct MB2/Ginn Racing. When he joined Red Bull, Frye was heavily touted as an answer to Red Bull’s woes – and after an abysmal first season, Frye’s leadership was a change.

Through 2008 and 2009 the performance of the team looked to be improved. Brian Vickers scored the team’s first win last season and made the Chase. Despite the improved performance, 2010 hasn’t been good to the #83 (or the team as a whole).

This season Vickers struggled through the opening weeks scoring only three top-tens in 10 races. With him now sidelined Casey Mears has been in the car the last two weeks, but he hasn’t been able to finish on the lead lap. For as mediocre as the #83 has run, Red Bull’s second car has performed worse.

Scott Speed, in his second season in the Cup Series, has only finished on the lead lap in five of 13 races. While he is improved over last season, Speed has only one top-10 to his credit in 2010.

As a GM, Jay Frye has struggled to make Red Bull a contender in NASCAR. Where other Toyota teams were able to overcome bad first seasons (Michael Waltrip Racing most prominently), Red Bull still hasn’t found the success of many of their counterparts.

And it’s no surprise. What’s been Frye’s answer to improving the team? Bring on many of his former MB2 employees (including Ryan Pemberton), and maintain the Red Bull extravagance. Oddly enough their performance has been about as good as MB2’s. Strange how that works.

This weekend two of the Front Row Motorsports cars actually finished better than the Red Bull cars. That’s a problem for Frye and those in charge of performance. Things need to change very quickly or those rumors we’ve been hearing will become reality.

TheNASCARInsiders.com

Follow the Insiders on Twitter or be a fan on Facebook!