« Photo of the Day - Cape Cod | Main | Kyle Petty on the Election Results and the Impact on the Garage Area »
November 12, 2008
New Plan for Red Bull Racing: Brian Vickers and Scott Speed to Swap Rides
After being denied the opportunity to put Mark Martin behind the wheel of the #84, the new plan for Red Bull Racing at Homestead is to have Brian Vickers and Scott Speed swap rides. Actually it'll only be a matter of switching numbers since presumably Vickers will race with his regular crew chief and team as will Speed and the teams will only slap different numbers on the cars this weekend. However, a simple number change will be a big deal for Vickers who will now have to qualify for the race on time, whereas Speed will be guaranteed a spot to race.
Vickers results at Homestead haven't been all that great in the past but he is a talented driver who has raced well this season so unless there's a mechanical issue or he gets caught in a wreck he will likely finish a lot better in the #84 than Speed would have. So I do understand why RBR is making this move. However, I think Vickers is being done wrong - he dealt with being outside the top 35 and having to qualify for races but he was able to race his way into the top 35 in owner's points. I think it's unfair to Vickers to put him back in a situation where he needs to qualify for a race again, though over the course of his career he's qualified well at Homestead. Of course he'll say all the right things publically but privately if I were in his shoes I wouldn't feel too good about this. RBR wants to do whatever they can to get the #84 the best possible finish but maybe they should have thought of that before dumping A.J. Allmendinger, the man who got them into the top 35 in the first place, out of the car.
Posted by silverdsl at November 12, 2008 08:30 AM
Comments
See....Red Bull really IS bad for your health...it has already killed off all the brain cells of whoever made this decision. LOL!
Poor Brian! I feel so bad for him to be put back into this situation. And I don't know...he's had some pretty bad luck lately, if that continues, this plan might not succeed.
Posted by: Carol at November 12, 2008 02:57 PM
LOL, I'm in trouble - one of my guilty pleasures of a sort is that I like the sugar-free Red Bull. Only energy drink that I like. I try not to have it more than once a week because I know how bad it probably is for me, but I may still be in danger of losing a few brain cells... hopefully not the the degree of the folks at RBR though! LOL, I wonder if all the employees there are required to drink a certain amount of Red Bull each day?
Seriously, some of the decisions by RBR this season have been really questionable, imo. They've definitely made progress since last season but I wonder what the long-term future holds for them. I can't say I want Brian to do well necessarily since I don't want him to bump Marcos out but hopefully he'll make the race and be able to have a problem-free race.
Posted by: silverdsl at November 12, 2008 03:13 PM