"Vickers signs with Red Bull to drive Toyota in '07" (Big Suprise)

nascar.com ^ | 6/26/06 | Dave Rodman

[icecold]

About two hours after he finished 14th in Sunday's Dodge/Save Mart 350 at Infineon Raceway, Brian Vickers appeared on television to announce he would drive a Toyota Camry for Team Red Bull in 2007.

Vickers, who little more than a week ago revealed a "mutual" decision to sever his four-year relationship with Hendrick Motorsports, announced a multi-year deal with Red Bull, one of three teams that will race Toyotas next season, on SPEED's Wind Tunnel.

[TommyDale]

So next year, Toyota will have Vickers, Jarrett and possibly
Elliot Sadler?

[icecold]

ping

[TexasCajun]

"Welcome aboard little buddy"

[icecold]

Waltrip

[1rudeboy]

If he wins, he'll be able to claim he got good mileage as well.

[icecold]

dumb move for Vickers if u ask me, but $$ talks

[TommyDale]

There was talk yesterday about Jarrett and also Sadler, and the turmoil at Yates. Apparently neither are very happy at Yates. What have you heard?

[Mathews]

This could be bad for the big three. Remember the old saying, "The car that wins on Sunday, sells on Monday?" Well, the face of NASCAR has changed... not so much Redneck anymore. The newer fans are more open minded about the types of cars they drive. Old fans = American Metal only. New fan = the most reliable car I can afford = Japanese. I see these Japanese cars winning. It won't surprise me at all. American makers spend too much time and money developing and naming new models that aren't worth a darn while the Japanese stay with and continuously improve upon their "old reliables" which are built way better than anything Detroit has put out in the last twenty years.

Goodbye Ford, Chevy, and GM. Isn't it nice knowing a foreign competitor is going to kick your butts on the track you think you own. Pathetic!

[SouthTexas]

Silly season starts early now, huh?

[icecold]

Jarrett already has signed with Toyota

[JamesP81]

I wondered when we'd start seeing import cars in NASCAR. I guess it won't be long before we start seeing Honda Accords and Nissan Altimas (and I'd lay money on the Altimas to do quite well).

[icecold]

My Honda Accord was built in Marysville,Ohio :)

[Sax]

And Mears steps in to fill the void at Hendrick. That seems to be a good fit - I'm sure Hendrick is feeling good about the switch too.

[opticks]

So was mine.

Does who makes the car really matter? Now it does (on some tracks at least), but with the CoT in 2007, what difference is it going to make?

[rikkir]

"dumb move for Vickers if u ask me, but $$ talks"

All eight million. The worst thing about this is what is it going to do to the salaries of the more famous drivers.
Junior get 25 mil to go to Childress, and drive the black 3?

[eraser2005]

Yeah, Toyota will get that great claim:

"We get 20% better gas mileage than our competitors!*



(*) 1.8 mpg vs 1.5 mpg measured during the Daytona 500"

:p

[eraser2005]

Of course, anyone who believes that the cars in NASCAR are even remotely related to ANYTHING produced by the manufacturers for the streets nowadays is short a few billion neurons...