Red Bull Racing: Drivers and Chevy or Toyota for 2012

Red Bull Racing team manager, Jay Frye, says he's comfortable letting things play out elsewhere in the NASCAR garage over the next month or so before he needs to start pushing on the 2012 lineup. #4-Kasey Kahne is on only a one-year contract and moving to Rick Hendrick at the end of the year. That's one seat Frye needs to fill. #83-Brian Vickers is the final year of his contract, is just eight races into his comeback, after sitting out most of 2010 recovering from blood clots. Mark Martin could be the wild card. He's quite happy with Hendrick, though Martin says he has no specific plans for 2012, when he's to turn his Cup team over to Kahne. But Martin and Frye have worked together before and have a good comfort level; Frye, who is bringing along 20-year-old newcomer Cole Whitt (a part-time Nationwide schedule this season), might like Martin as mentor and part-time driver (as Martin did for Frye when they ran Bobby Ginn's team in 2007)&though Red Bull itself might prefer a different marketing demographic than Martin, at 52, might provide.

"Everybody knows who the players are," Frye says of the landscape. "And over the next month we'll just be watching and listening, and before we have to start making moves and hard pitches. What we have to do right now is run well. When Kasey runs well, he helps us in 'selling' that seat, because that shows everyone what we've got to offer, shows everyone 'Hey, these guys are for real.'"

Is a Chevrolet deal in the works for Team Red Bull for 2012? That's not new; it keeps cropping up, in part because Frye has worked with General Motors in the past, and in part because Red Bull is a good co-promotional sponsor. Again Frye is shooting it down: "That's been going on for about three years now. There is no truth to that." More at Mikemulhern.net