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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.

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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.

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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.

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