Michael Waltrip Racing, Yates Racing and Red Bull Racing topped the list of most improved teams in 2008 according to Tom Jensen. (Photos by Chris Graythen and Robert Laberge/Getty Images)
Editor’s note: Over the next three weeks, SPEEDtv.com will take a look back on the 2008 NASCAR Sprint Cup season and identify the best, the worst and the wackiest of the year that was. This is the first in our 2008 Year In Review articles.
There were several NASCAR Sprint Cup teams that showed noticeable improvement in 2008, including Yates Racing and Michael Waltrip Racing. But the numbers don’t lie: The most improved Cup team of 2008 was Red Bull Racing.
Of course, one of the reasons that Red Bull was the most improved team of 2008 is that its first Cup season was so awful. Back in 2007, Red Bull drivers Brian Vickers and AJ Allmendinger only qualified for 23 and 17 races, respectively, with neither driver able to put his Toyota in the top 35 in owner points.
Given the abysmal start, Red Bull made major changes for 2008. The most important was the January hiring of Jay Frye as the team’s vice president and general manager. Frye, a former college football standout from the University of Missouri, brought a back-to-basics sensibility to the team, emphasizing what he called “blocking and tackling.” Frye previously had utilized that kind of common-sense approach in building MB2 Motorsports from a single-car team to a successful three-car outfit that became Ginn Racing.
Frye quietly made some key hires from other teams and quickly began building a strong foundation at Red Bull. When Allmendinger opened the season with three consecutive DNQs, he was parked for five races in favor of veteran Mike Skinner, who helped sort out the handling of Allmendinger’s cars and educate him in the ways of Sprint Cup racing.
That move paid off handsomely, as Allmendinger showed tremendous improvement, especially after being paired with crew chief Jimmy Elledge midway through the season. In 21 races after being benched, Allmendinger didn’t have any DNQs and raced the No. 84 back into the top 35 in owner points.
After a career-best finish of ninth at Kansas Speedway, Allmendinger parted company with the team to make room for Scott Speed, who had been dazzling in the ARCA/Remax and NASCAR Camping World Truck Series. In the Sprint Cup season-finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway, Speed qualified second and finished 16th, a good note on which to end the season. Speed, like his teammate, will begin 2009 locked into the top 35 in Cup owner points, which guarantees he’ll make the first five races of 2009, including the Daytona 500.
Vickers, meanwhile, began the season strong, finishing 12th or better in three of the first four races of 2008. Midway through the year, he had back-to-back finishes of second at Pocono and fourth at Michigan, and all year long he stayed in the top 20 in driver points. After finishing 2007 38th in points, Vickers climbed to 19th in 2008, earning one pole, three top-five and six top-10 finishes. It was the single biggest jump in points of any Sprint Cup driver.
Having reached the level of respectability in 2008, Red Bull has set lofty goals for next season: Win its first race, put Vickers in the Chase and have Speed win Raybestos Rookie of the Year honors. Whether the team can pull off all or any of those goals remains to be seen. What’s not in question was the improvement that it showed this year, which is why it takes most improved team honors for 2008.
Tom Jensen is the Senior NASCAR Editor for SPEEDtv.com, the former Executive Editor of NASCAR Scene and a contributing Editor for TruckSeries.com. He is the author of “Cheating: The Bad Things Good NASCAR Nextel Cup Racers Do In Pursuit of SPEED,” and has appeared on television and radio shows to discuss NASCAR racing. Jensen is the President of the National Motorsports Press Association. Jensen is the 1997 National Motorsports Press Association Writer of the Year and has won numerous national and state awards for news reporting, columns and feature writing. The Answer Man is back at SPEEDtv.com. Tom Jensen answers your questions during every race week and looks forward to hearing from you - please e-mail it to
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