Will Gordon jump to Toyota camp?

Toyota executives certainly didn't wait long before making some big waves in NASCAR. Just two days after officially announcing its 2007 debut in Nextel Cup racing, Toyota said that Red Bull, one of sport's hottest new world-wide sponsors, will be one its three team owners.

When Red Bull's Dietrich Mateschitz, the Austrian who has made a fortune with his caffeine-laden energy drink, steps into a sports arena, big things happen. So when Jim Aust, Toyota's racing boss, said that Red Bull will be joining NASCAR's Cup tour as a two-team, company-owned operation running Camrys, it got everyone's attention.

The big question now is, who will drive for Toyota, and who will drive for Red Bull?

Aust has a three-team, six-driver lineup for Toyota in 2007. But so far only Michael Waltrip and Dave Blaney have been listed as drivers. Waltrip will drive for his own two-car team, and Bill Davis will run a two-car team.

Manager Marty Gaunt of Red Bull, who ran Michael Kranefuss' NASCAR Ford team five years ago, said he still hasn't picked his two drivers, but said he hopes to have one driver racing in the last four or five races this season, running out of Roger Penske's former shop in Huntersville.

Speculation promptly centered on Robby Gordon, a Chevy driver but with long ties to Red Bull as well as to Toyota. General Motors may have to raise its sponsorship to keep Gordon from jumping. Gordon is one of the sport's few stars not under a long-term contract.

Mateschitz spends an estimated $600 million a year promoting and marketing Red Bull, through extreme sports such as Amazon surfing and ventures such as Gordon's driving in the Dakar Rally. Gordon tried to draw the company into Nextel Cup racing last year, but Red Bull instead decided to buy Ford's Formula One team and play in that arena.

Now Red Bull has taken up this challenge and is looking for two Cup drivers. More at Winston Salem Journal