Red Bull Racing Vice President and General Manager Jay Frye will travel to Austria next week for his semi-annual meeting with his team owner and sponsor’s upper management. During that time, Frye said he will try to nail down a number of details for 2010, including a deal with an automaker, a contract for Brian Vickers and, possibly, a new major associate sponsor for the team.
Red Bull is the final year of its deal with Toyota. Frye said on Friday at Chicagoland Speedway that “they’ve (Toyota) been a great partner and it’s our intention to try and go forward with them.” But he also said that talks on a new deal have been ongoing for more than a year and that the team is talking with Chevrolet as well.
Wrapping up a deal with either Toyota or Chevrolet isn’t contingent on money or technical support, Frye said, but there are a number of unspecified details yet to be resolved with an automaker.
Lee White, Toyota’s racing boss in the United States, said he hoped to have Red Bull back in the Toyota camp again next year. “We have an offer on the table with Red Bull, and basically, the ball’s in their court whether or not they decide to accept our offer,” White told SPEEDtv.com earlier this week.
Frye said the team absolutely intends to re-sign Vickers, who on Friday won his fifth pole of the season, a career high and high among Sprint Cup drivers so far this season. That gave Red Bull the front row for the LifeLock400.com, with rookie Scott Speed starting on the outside of Row 1 in his Toyota.
