NASCAR’s Team Red Bull Almost Gets Its Wings

Last weekend was Red Bull’s best finish since the inception of the company. Everyone was thrilled, but it was tempered with a bit of disappointment, because had Kyle Busch not spun, we would have won that race. But this team’s definitely come around in its second year.

Had we managed to take first place that would have been huge. Personally it would have been my first Nextel Cup win. It would have been the first win of the company and it’s just really a momentum builder.

The head of Red Bull Racing Team, Dieter Mateschitz, is a huge planes fanatic and he’s really big into the idea that you have to “earn your wings,” because the Red Bull slogan is, “Red Bull Gives You Wings.” We’re hoping when we get our first win he’ll buy us our own team planes.

It’s funny, unlike other sports, unless you are the winner, there’s nothing for you. We just say, “We had a good race,” there are pats on the back, then we get on a plane and go home.

Second place still shows the resiliency of this team, after the trials and tribulations we went through last year. It shows not to count us out. We have some really intelligent people at Red Bull that are making a huge difference. Our General Manager Jay Frye made some resounding changes to the place, and it’s become a place where people want to work. That’s not something you can say about everywhere in the industry right now.

Highlights From The Pit

We had a really good day. A couple of our guys almost got run over by Mark Martin a couple times, because Mark’s notorious for getting in close on your car when you’re pitting it.