Nextel Cup’s Team Red Bull appears willing to help ex-Formula One driver Scott Speed, 24, into NASCAR, but the road may be long and winding. Speed, who lost his F1 ride with Scuderia Toro Rosso recently, has almost no oval-track experience at any level. Until he gains that experience, NASCAR isn’t likely to clear him for its Craftsman, Busch or Cup series. Even so, Red Bull owner Dietrich Mateschitz feels Speed can make the transition. “He would be an asset for us in NASCAR,” Mateschitz said of the Californian. The Red Bull-backed Toyota NASCAR team featuring #83-Brian Vickers and #84-A.J. Allmendinger has had problems of its own this season, missing 25 of 48 potential starts through Bristol. Vickers scored the team’s only top-five and its only three top-10s in his 14 starts. Allmendinger has missed 15 races and has nine finishes between 31st and 40th. Elton Sawyer, TRB’s director of competition, does not foresee any significant personnel changes next year. “…our two drivers will be back,” he said at Bristol. “Scott Speed is a Red Bull athlete, which means we’ll do whatever we can to introduce him to this form of racing. But I don’t think you’ll see him over here in a Cup car with our team next year.”(Autoweek.com)(8-29-2007)
