Red Bull Set to Leave NASCAR

[Dilla]

Damn, Kasey Kahne must be cancer.:p

Sources say employees at Red Bull Racing have been told that the NASCAR Sprint Cup operation will close at the end of the year.

A surprise visit by Thomas Ueberall, international motorsports chief for Red Bull, had crew members scrambling for job openings at Michigan this past weekend.

With the success of Red Bull's Formula One operation, it’s not surprising that the Austrian company pulled the plug on its NASCAR effort considering that it’s struggled since its inception in 2007. In five years, there’s been a revolving door of drivers with Brian Vickers being the lone victor of one race and qualifying for the Chase for the Sprint Cup only in 2009.

It must pretty taxing to flip the full bill for two full-time teams without any secondary sponsors and not be all that good. While the article claims that Red Bull leaving all-the-way, I would be surprised if I see the sponsor part-time next year. It's 100+% cheaper than what they are doing now.

Either way bad news for Brian Vickers. The rumor presented in the article is that the GM, Jay Frye, wants to buy and partner with Mark Martin. Cole Whitt would stay as well. However, Frye would have an uphill battle having to find so many sponsors in a short period of time.

Bowyer should count his blessings that this announced now if the article is true and he was negotiating with them.

Michael Andretti has said that he is looking to possibly move to NASCAR if he could bring his Indy sponsors with him. This could give him a opportunity if he's interested.

[Dilla]

Sorry for double post, but statement for Red Bull. . .

Statement from Red Bull Racing: "Red Bull Racing Team is currently seeking outside investors as we evaluate next steps in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. We are not at liberty to comment on details while negotiations are under way. Red Bull fully supports NASCAR for the remainder of the 2011 season as we fight for victories and a position in the 2011 Chase for the Sprint Cup."

[charlotte49er]

I think the "Fair Weather" fans of recent years have really lost interest. Which translates into sponsor dollars and empty seats. (vice versa) I thought with the NFL not playing/cutting their season short if they do play, that NASCAR would benefit.

There's rumors that a few more major sponsors will leave as well by year end.

We may see next year, a race by race deals, or "bundling" of races. You get the Daytona 500, but you have to take the next 3 as well.

[Squirrel]

Being a fulltime sponsor of a car is hard to justify in the board room. Used to be $12-$20 million dollards a year depending on the driver and team. Not many teams left either you have your big 4 or 5 but after that the compittion goes down.

[Claws]

was reading another article elsewhere that said with all the success in F1 that red bull just grew tired of losing.

i mean, it's not exactly like they have a cream of the crop stable until kahne came along. casey mears, vickers, franchitti i believe...

[Hawk]

I also know Red Bull and various other energy drinks are under poo loads of pressure these days with advertising and children using their products etc.

[PantherFanTom]

Red Bull really shot themselves in the foot when they released AJ Allmendinger in favor of Scott Speed. It never made sense to me to develop a driver for two years and when he finally shows he can be competitive they release him.

Vickers will without a doubt find another Cup ride. But it probably won't be with one of the top tier teams. I've read Micheal Waltrip Racing and that seems feasible if MWR wants to go to a 3 car team. Or if Bobby Labonte finally retires and Vickers can take over the 47 car that already has MWR support.

[Mattiekrome]

Wow, a couple weeks ago I met a guy in a training class in Charlotte that worked for Red Bull Racing, the way he talked it was an awesome job, not to mention Red Bull paid nearly 4K for him to go to a week long training class. The way he talked, this would be a total blindside to him.