FanHouse TeamRedBull

Team Red Bull, this is your official welcome to NASCAR.

The mood around the TRB shop should be way, way up this week after a very impressive performance by both of its drivers A.J. Allmendinger and Brian Vickers Sunday at Pocono Raceway. After their weekend, TRB can definitely take a foothold as the second-best Toyota team on the Sprint Cup circuit behind Joe Gibbs Racing.

Vickers -- who left Hendrick Motorsports at the end of 2006 to be the lead driver at the startup TRB -- turned in his best finish with a solid second-place run on the steamy afternoon at Pocono. Allmendinger brought his Toyota home 12th for his career-best finish.

Pocono wasn't the first time this season that TRB has made its presence known among the leaders. In fact, it was more of a continuation.

A.J. Allmendinger hasn't made a Sprint Cup series race yet in 2008 and announcement Monday by the team will make that impossible to change in the time being.

Mike Skinner, a Toyota driver from the Craftsman Truck Series, will instead take over temporary duties in the No. 84 Toyota.

From the team's blog, the "Stock Car Ticker":

"We're at a crossroads where we need to make a change that will elevate the No. 84 team to success," said VP and General Manager Jay Frye.

"AJ's our guy and he's a talented driver, but there's a lot being asked of him. In order for him to be successful, we have to get this team pointed in the right direction. We hope we can do that with the help of a veteran driver."

Skinner got a start last weekend at Las Vegas in another Sprint Cup Toyota, Bill Davis Racing's No. 27. Hew qualified the car 5th and wound up 30th, 2 laps down.

Skinner's role in the car will be to help the team make some races to battle for an owner points position inside the Top-35 to help guarantee the Toyota makes race. Additionally, he'll try to help the team evaluate their program from a veteran's prospective.

Allmendinger's teammate Brian Vickers has qualified for each race this season, and after a miserable campaign in 2007, the team simply cannot afford to miss races in a regular fashion.

First we got Juan, then Jacques, and now it seems former American Formula One driver Scott Speed will make the jump from the open wheel ranks to the stock car world.

Speed, with the world's single coolest racing name, will make his debut at the Oct. 5 ARCA race at Talladega Superspeedway -- the same event in which Juan Pablo Montoya made his just a year ago.

The debut will come with one of ARCA's top teams, Eddie Sharp Racing, in a Red Bull-sponsored Toyota.

Speed lost his ride with Scuderia Toro Rosso in F1 earlier this year, but he never lost his partnership with Red Bull.

"I come from a completely different world of racing, so there's no doubt it's going to be a challenge learning how these cars handle, but I'm ready to get out there and see what I've got!" said Speed.

Speed's connection with Red Bull dates back to 2002, when he won the Red Bull Driver Search, a program aimed at putting an American talent into Formula One.

Speed's venture into stock cars doesn't have a set path for 2008, but it definitely wouldn't surprise me to see the talented driver in either the Busch or Truck Series some.

Current NASCAR Nextel Cup Team Red Bull drivers Brian Vickers and A.J. Allmendinger aren't expected to replace by the new guy, though.

After all, he didn't win support from Red Bull for a lack of talent.

Team Red Bull had a little fun with A.J. Allmendinger in their team meeting today, their first since Allmendinger's first Nextel Cup race. In celebration of him getting the qualifying monkey off his back, the team presented Allmendinger with a 'Got the Gorilla Off My Back' piñata:

It took three blindfolded swings for AJ to crack open the piñata. Out fell an assortment of Little Debbie snacks, in tribute to the Kenny Schraders' Little Debbies #21 car that punted AJ into the outside wall at Bristol on Sunday. Welcome to NASCAR, Rookie! Even though it was a rookie mistake to come down on Kenny when he wasn't clear, AJ still got his revenge today and the team got a good laugh.

They discussed the Schrader/Allmendinger incident on "Inside Nextel Cup" last night and noted the team held itself accountable for the contact. They also mentioned that after he got thrown into the wall, hearing "inside" had a whole new effect on Allmendinger--probably not a mistake he'll be repeating in the near future, assuming, of course, he has another opportunity.

I wonder what kind of Little Debbie snacks he got! I'm partial to the Star Crunch Cosmic Wafers myself.

Unlike Brandon Whitt, Jeremy Mayfield, A.J. Allmendinger and Mike Bliss survived the "three strikes you're out" approach and went on to attempt to qualify for Sunday's Nextel Cup race.

Mayfield and Allmendinger failed ... for the fourth straight week. (Ray Evernham and CHAMP Car fans everywhere are laughing their [insert preferred body part here]s off.)

Kevin LePage is also 0 for 4.

Ward Burton, Kenny Wallace and Michael Waltrip have all failed to qualify in three out of four attempts.

The KOBALT Tools 500 will be Brian Vickers' second race of the season and Mike Bliss' first.

At what point does a team say, "We have a problem?"

At what point does a sponsor say, "We can't afford to keep pouring money into your team without getting a return on our investment?"

Team Red Bull has an obvious advantage sponsoring their own team.

But how long can it possibly be before 360 OTC Team Green, et. al. decide to pull the plug?

How long before Napa tells Michael Waltrip Racing that they'd like to sponsor one of their Toyotas that actually makes it into the field?

My guess? Not much longer.