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.
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With the announcement last week that Red Bull was ceasing its NASCAR operations at the end of the season, the 2011 Silly Season went into full overdrive. While the number of available rides just potentially got cut by one, the number of unanswered questions increased. Can Red Bull find investors? What will Brian Vickers do next season?
Along with those unanswered questions about Red Bull are the drivers and teams who find themselves without a solid deal for 2012. Still what are the realistic opportunities for movement before next season.
Carl Edwards is in the final year of his deal with Roush Fenway Racing and easily finds himself as the hottest prospect. He’s the current points leader and a 19-time winner in the Cup Series.
Edwards has been the subject of a rumored move to Joe Gibbs Racing. While a fourth car at Gibbs is the best option available to Edwards, is it really better than his current position with Roush Fenway? I think, at best, it represents a lateral move for the driver.
The rumors of an Edwards to Gibbs move no doubt came from either Gibbs or Edwards – either way it strengthens Edward’s negotiating position at Roush, which, I think, was the purpose of the rumors. We’ll see what happens, but I think the driver will more than likely stay where he is; despite his potential to bring money wherever he goes.
Clint Bowyer is in the final year of his contract with Richard Childress Racing and has been the subject of a rumored move to Red Bull Racing (that is, before Red Bull announced they were leaving the sport). Bowyer has had success at RCR but has played second fiddle to Kevin Harvick. With a move to Red Bull now out of the question, Bowyer is also very likely to stay where he is.
Brian Vickers finds himself in a worse position than the other two drivers mentioned. He has been with Red Bull Racing since the team began in 2006, leaving Hendrick Motorsports for the opportunity. With a severe lack of opportunities, he doesn’t have many better options but to stick it out with Red Bull and hope Jay Frye can put together investors capable of keeping the team alive.
Mark Martin is a man toward the end of his career who is not ready to end his career. With Kasey Kahne moving into Martin’s spot at Hendrick Motorsports when Martin’s contract ends at the end of the year, Martin is a wild card. Excluding unsubstantiated rumors that he would be investing in Red Bull Racing, Martin’s future remains very murky. He and Jay Frye have a relationship from Martin’s time at Ginn Racing and it wouldn’t be surprising, if Frye can put the investors together, that Martin ends up in a Frye car. We’ll see what happens, but that may be the only Cup opportunity available to the 52-year-old driver.
Danica Patrick, while maybe not the most sought after driver, is perhaps the most intriguing driver of this Silly Season. She is in the final year of her deals with Andretti Autosport in the IndyCar Series and JR Motorsports in the Nationwide Series and brings with her big sponsorship and endorsement deals. Her realistic available opportunities include a continued role at JR Motorsports and perhaps a third team at Stewart Haas Motorsports. Both are of course contingent upon the money she brings, but she can no doubt bring the money. We’ll see if she brings her talents to NASCAR.
What are your thoughts on the current Silly Season, these drivers and others? Where do you think these drivers will end up? Talk amongst yourselves.
I got an email from a reader on Monday pointing out something I hadn’t put much thought into. He wrote asking us to talk about the Toyota engine program and how in five years the teams using Toyota built motors, Michael Waltrip Racing and Red Bull Racing, only had one win not decided by weather or fuel mileage (David Reutimann’s at Chicago last year; Joe Gibbs Racing builds its own engines – they’ve scored 33 wins since switching manufacturers in 2008).
Though I’m not going to talk about that with this post, with Red Bull’s recent decision to exit NASCAR in the news I couldn’t help but think about how connected the two are. Just Marketing CEO and founder Zak Brown told USA Today:
“They never really had the level of success (in NASCAR) that I’m sure they were hoping for. And on the flip side, you have enormous success around Formula One. I’d probably say it’s a combination of both, and I’m not sure there was ever the same level of excitement and passion (for NASCAR). (Red Bull owner) Dietrich (Mateschitz) is a winner, and he’s not going to go on forever if he doesn’t get the results… If Red Bull had won a bunch of races and were competing in the Chase (for the Sprint Cup), I think you’d still see them in the sport.”
I couldn’t agree more.
This issue of performance is interesting because Red Bull never really made serious lasting changes to fix the problem.
Since the team began they’ve had the same guy in charge of competition former F1er Gunther Steiner (UPDATED) The team has been through several competition directors; a string of so-so crew chiefs (Doug Richert, Randy Cox, Kevin Hamlin, Jimmy Elledge, Ricky Viers), and they’ve burned through two drivers, never giving either the time they needed to develop.
And then there is the much lauded Jay Frye who replaced Marty Gaunt pretty early on. He brought to Red Bull a, well, spotty track record. He ran the very mediocre MB2/MBV, and then was at the helm of Ginn Racing. Though the collapse of Ginn wasn’t Frye’s fault, he didn’t always help matters. The team was notorious for its spending and it struggled to find sponsorship. That spending mentality ended up at Red Bull, and was in full effect until this season. To his credit Frye did help drag the team out of the gutter, but with his personnel decisions he’s really done nothing more than turn it into MB2/Ginn 2.0.
Mix the above with the team’s continued commitment to Toyota’s less than stellar engine program and it’s no wonder the team never performed very well.
From Austria to Mooresville, leadership was severely lacking. This is an organization that had a ton of potential to succeed but was never given the time, patience or the right resources to do so.
Red Bull’s demise is surprising, but not completely unexpected – it just couldn’t continue on the same path indefinitely.
Oh, what could have been.
After five years in existence, we learned via Jenna Fryer on Monday that Red Bull Racing will be no more after this season. There are a lot of rumors and speculation about the future of the organization, but plan A at this point appears to involve manager Jay Frye and the hope of attracting outside investors. Only time will tell if Frye can actually put a deal together to keep the doors open of their Lakeside shop.
Exactly why Red Bull is getting out now remains a mystery. Speculation has hinged on everything from their performance issues to business reasons. NASCAR has struggled in recent years with the key male 18-34 demographic, and that is Red Bull’s target market. With fewer of their target consumers tuning in, this would seem to be a plausible explanation. I’m not sure I buy that however.
To me, this move appears to be Red Bull cutting their losses. They’ve sunk millions into this race team over the last five years and they have very little to show for it. Brian Vickers has the organization’s lone Cup Series win, which came back in 2009. At the time, it appeared Red Bull was on their way, but performance has been a disappointment since then. The outlook for RBR was positive coming into 2011, but the season hasn’t panned out to this point. Kasey Kahne is currently 19th in the standings and Brian Vickers is 24th. Kahne is their top threat to win every week, but he’s leaving at season’s end for Hendrick.
It is my belief that regardless of NASCAR’s demographic issues, if Red Bull was winning and a regular contender, they’d stay. Let me remind you that this is a company that has spent well north of $600 million on it’s Formula 1 teams since 2004. The difference being that Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber are contenders.
I also want to point out that I don’t think Red Bull’s departure is some sort of drastic sign about the health of the sport. NASCAR is still a very viable avenue for companies looking to spend marketing dollars, and recent deals like the one HMS struck with Farmers Insurance show that. It may not happen immediately, but Red Bull’s spots on the grid will be filled.
Moving forward, even though Red Bull appears to be giving up their ownership stake, their NASCAR involvement may not end completely. Becoming a regular sponsor of either a driver or races could be an option. Here’s to hoping this is the case.
Entering its fifth season Red Bull Racing yet again finds itself with an uncertain future. Brian Vickers returned to the team this year after spending most of 2010 sidelined with health issues and Kasey Kahne joined the team on a one-year visa.
With a couple of promising runs so far this season, 2011 could shape up to be a good year for Red Bull Racing. But with only one driver in place for 2012, what happens at the end of the year is anybody’s guess.
The potential of Red Bull was abandoned last year in favor of Kahne. Scott Speed lost his job at the end of 2010 after months of speculation about his future. He joined AJ Allmendinger in the category of Red Bull drivers pushed too soon and abandoned too early.
Now when Kahne jumps ship for Hendrick next year, what are the odds Red Bull does it again? Consider the options for the team. They could sign up a driver already in the sport – not too many great free agents available though. Or, they could tap the existing talent they have. Does the name Cole Whitt ring a bell?
The young driver, a former USAC champion, has 16 NASCAR starts to his name (10 of which came in the K&N Pro Series East last season). He’s currently running the full Truck Series schedule for Turn One Racing. If this sounds familiar, you’re not going crazy.
Scott Speed, a former F1 driver, ran a full ARCA and Truck schedule before being thrust into AJ Allmendinger’s seat. And lest we forget, Allmendinger had three starts in a Truck before being pushed into a Cup car with the new Red Bull team. Both drivers had two full Cup seasons with the team before being booted.
To say Red Bull has a bad track record developing its talent would be an understatement. While I have yet to hear anything substantive about the future of Red Bull, a scenario where they plop Cole Whitt into a Cup car is not completely out of the realm of possibility.
With Whitt they have a talented young driver with a world of potential in front of him. Whether they allow that talent to grow and prosper remains to be seen. So you tell me, what does Red Bull do next year?
Spin (verb): to cause to have a particular bias; influence in a certain direction
For those of you unfamiliar with the term or it’s usage, I’ll tell you it’s generally considered a pejorative – though not all spin is bad or unethical. In NASCAR, some have a tendency to use spin when confronting difficult issues. It’s not always an effective or advisable tool.
I’m not sure what was in the water these last couple of weeks, but the NASCAR team PR spin machines were in full force – more so than usual. From the laughable, to the cringe-worthy, they definitely ran the gamut.
That Was Kind of Low KBM
“Kyle Busch Motorsports (KBM) is designed to give up-and-coming drivers a chance to advance through the ladder system of NASCAR’s top-three national touring divisions. Thus far, its mission has been accomplished as KBM officials announced that Tayler Malsam will depart the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series team to accept a ride in the NASCAR Nationwide Series driving the No. 10 Braun Racing Toyota” – Kyle Busch Motorsports/True Speed Communications
Kyle Busch is in over his head and losing a lot of money. He forces, or receives an opportunity to save money by shutting down the #56 team. You’re part of his PR team, what do you do?
A. Tell the truth – put out a press release saying the team is shutting down and Tayler Malsam is moving on
B. Color the truth – use it as an opportunity to tout you’re record for advancing young drivers
C. None of the above
If you chose answer B, congratulations! You’re on your way to becoming a spin doctor!
For the dozen plus guys who no longer have a job, I’m sure it was comforting to their wives and family members that they helped a young driver advance. Something tells me it was little consolation.
This was the cringe-worthy release of the week. There is just one line in the entire release saying the #56 will be shut down – no discussion of the ramifications, nothing. Not unethical, but far from appropriate. Unfortunately, the collateral damage (the laid off employees) in this whole thing was completely over looked.
A Unified Effort? Or an Effort to ‘Extenze’ Conway’s Cup Run?
“Using a unified approach to give its three-car team the best opportunities to continue to succeed as a whole, Front Row Motorsports announced changes to its NASCAR Sprint Cup Series line-up effective this week for the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway… The changes are aimed to optimize all three teams’ ability to score more points and strengthen the organization.” – Front Row Motorsports/Breaking Limits PR
I was trying to think of something more clever, but I figured I better keep it PG. This was actually one of the better spin jobs of the week.
I think at this point just about everyone knows what Front Row is doing – rotating their drivers numbers to keep all their cars in the top-35. The truth of the matter is they’re rotating everyone through so Kevin Conway doesn’t have to qualify.
Can we call it a unifed effort? Absolutely, and frankly it’s a nice way to look at things. Though I know Travis Kvapil wasn’t thrilled with the move and I can’t imagine David Gilliland is excited to get to the track every weekend knowing he has to qualify on time, the move seems to have worked.
The team was able to bump Robby Gordon out last week, and Conway has been able to stay out of the very precarious position of having to qualify his way in. It’s good he has sponsor money on his side.
Frye’s Last Stand
“Current circumstances presented the opportunity, and Red Bull Racing Team acted Tuesday with an experimental approach, swapping crew chiefs and support personnel for this weekend’s Sprint Cup race at Pocono Raceway and beyond.” – Red Bull Racing Team PR
The way they’re pushing this one, I think they’re trying to convince themselves more than they’re trying to convince the rest of us.
Let’s be honest, things have not been going well at Red Bull. In fact they’ve been going so not well I wrote on the subject just a day before the team announced these changes.
As much as they want to say they’re just experimenting (which they certainly are), what I see is Jay Frye’s last stand to keep his job. He’s responsible for what that organization looks like and he’s soon going to have to answer to the powers that be in Austria.
This looks to me like a spin job that had to happen. Unfortunately this makes it appear as if they were a weak team from the get go. The original release quotes Jay Frye as saying, “Due to the circumstances of our current situation, we have an opportunity to experiment with different personnel combinations.”
Vickers was certainly a big loss, but he’s just one guy. Apparently without Vickers, the season is a complete loss for the whole team. It’s a head scratcher. Red Bull’s a two car team that doesn’t seem to have much faith in their second team (or rather driver I guess).
This one is definitely going to be one to follow as the season progresses.
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.