NASCAR Sprint-Cup Series
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CUP: Toyota Interested In Keeping Team Connection
Red Bull is continuing its search for investors in the team…
Mike Hembree  |  Posted June 22, 2011   Charlotte, NC
The partnership between Toyota and Red Bull Racing began in 2007. (Photo: LAT Photographic)
Red Bull Racing was one of Toyota’s foundation teams when the Japanese manufacturer moved into Sprint Cup racing in the 2007 season.

With this week’s news that Red Bull is leaving behind its NASCAR connection, Toyota could lose one of its teams. But Toyota Racing Development chief Lee White said Wednesday that he is interested in working with team general manager Jay Frye as Frye seeks investors and sponsors to keep the team afloat.

“I have a huge respect for Jay Frye,” White said. “He’s a great guy and has a lot of experience in the sport. He’s well-connected.

“I’m very interested to see what he ends up with as far as investors and partners, and certainly we’ll have time for him moving forward if he wants to continue the relationship, and we’ll also have a lot of time for him even if that doesn’t happen and it involves someone else.”

Frye said Tuesday he hopes to begin serious discussions with potential investors and partners in the next 30 to 45 days to keep the team alive. Red Bull currently owns and sponsors the two-car operation, and Frye said the energy drink company has not ruled out the possibility of retaining ties to the team in some fashion when its ownership ends at the conclusion of the season.

“We wish him the best of luck,” White said. “They have a very solid team on the engineering side and in car construction and pit-stop groups and so on.”

Joe Gibbs Racing and Michael Waltrip Racing are Toyota’s other major Sprint Cup teams. Would Toyota seek another team if the Red Bull operation does not continue?

“I don’t think there is anyone else,” White said. “If you look around the garage, everyone is pretty contract-committed for the foreseeable future.

“Our target over the last half-decade we’ve been in Cup racing has to be associated with about 25 percent of the field, which is about eight or nine cars. With Joe Gibbs Racing and Michael Waltrip Racing and Red Bull, that’s about what we’ve had. This would drop us down to six, but there’s the potential for both Gibbs and Waltrip to add a car and get us back to eight.”

White said Toyota was notified at Michigan International Speedway last weekend about Red Bull’s plans.

“We were extremely pleased with their performance all through the beginning of this year,” White said. “Of course, in 2009 they had a real high point … winning a race and making the Chase with Brian (Vickers). We were sitting in tall cotton.

“Last year with Brian [sitting out most of the year with health problems] and still trying to develop Scott Speed was just a very, very difficult time for them and us. But this year they’ve really come back. They made their organization more engineering-driven. Their wind tunnel results were great. We had to rescale our wind tunnel because their cars were so good.

“We were extremely excited about the future with them. We still have time left on our agreement with them, and we were anxious to start discussing extending the relationship when this all came down.”

Mike Hembree is NASCAR Editor for SPEED.com and has been covering motorsports for 29 years. He is a six-time winner of the National Motorsports Press Association Writer of the Year Award.
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