Team Red Bull is facing its first race after several practices and an ARCA event. Credit: Rusty Jarrett/Getty Images

Elliott to saddle up Red Bull's debut at Charlotte

Victory Junction Gang Camp to be on hood of No. 83 Dodge

Bill Elliott finds himself in a familiar situation this weekend.

It was six years ago that Elliott helped get Dodge back into NASCAR's premier series. Now he is heading up a new task -- one that is much more scaled back, for now.

Bill Elliott will be the grand marshal for Sunday's Ride to Victory, benefiting the Victory Junction Gang Camp. Credit: Autostock

ELLIOTT'S SUNDAY DRIVE While most drivers will be taking Sunday off, Bill Elliott will be setting out on his second drive of the weekend.  Elliott, who will drive the No. 83 Dodge for Team Red Bull this weekend at Lowe's Motor Speedway, is the grand marshal for Sunday's fourth annual Ride to Victory. The motorcycle ride, which gives fans the chance to ride across North Carolina with their favorite NASCAR celebrities, will benefit the Victory Junction Gang Camp.  Victory Junction Gang Camp will be on the hood of Elliott's car Saturday night. After the race, Team Red Bull plans to donate Elliott's race winnings to the camp, as well as donate the car and driver suit for auction through the NASCAR Foundation in November.  "You look back throughout your career and you feel like you've not done enough," Elliott said. "I've done a lot of different things in a lot of different cities, and to see sick kids, it just breaks your heart."  The one-day ride that is headed up by Kyle Petty begins Sunday morning at scattered Harley-Davidson dealerships in North Carolina. The group will meet and depart from Carolina Harley-Davidson in Gastonia, N.C., at noon and ride to the Victory Junction Gang Camp in Randleman, N.C.  More than 400 riders are expected, with this year's goal of $43,000. The cost to participate in the ride is $85.  "Kyle has done an excellent job," Elliott said."My hat's off to him and what he's been able to put together as hard as they've worked for that particular deal. I just wish there was time to do more."

Elliott will attempt to lead Team Red Bull's entrance into Nextel Cup this weekend, as the newly formed Toyota team will make its debut at Lowe's Motor Speedway.

Elliott will try to qualify on time for Saturday's Bank of America 500 (7 p.m. ET, NBC), the first of three scheduled races for Elliott and Team Red Bull, with the others being Atlanta and Texas.

The 1988 Cup Series champion is tight-lipped about his plans beyond that, shaking his head at even the thought of a return to full-time racing. That still leaves Team Red Bull searching for a second driver to pair with Brian Vickers in 2007.

Saturday, however, could be a monumental moment for Toyota's team that literally sprouted without any roots in the Nextel Cup Series.

"It's an honor to have a driver of Bill Elliott's caliber help us get the program ready for 2007," Team Red Bull general manager Marty Gaunt said back in June when it was announced Elliott would help get the team prepared. "His championship pedigree and his penchant for providing technical feedback make Bill the ideal fit for this important role."

The team has tested. It has run an ARCA race. It has built an engine program from the ground up. But it hasn't taken the green flag in a Cup race.

"It'll be the first time we actually compete in a race," Elliott said of this weekend. "As far as Cup stuff, this is kind of a kickoff weekend."

Elliott's car, however, will resemble a Toyota about as much as Elliott resembles, well, a Toyota driver.

The No. 83 will have a Dodge motor hanging in a Dodge chassis with, unofficially, a Dodge driver strapped in behind the wheel.

Elliott said that doesn't matter.

"I don't know that there's going to be much difference in manufacturers next year," said Elliott, who has driven for four different teams this year, all primarily in R&D roles. "The car's going to be what it is, whether it's a Toyota, Dodge, Chevrolet, Ford, whatever. The engine is probably [Toyota's] only variable."

That's never been more truthful with next year's phasing in of the Car of Tomorrow. The uniform car makes its debut at Bristol in March, the season's fifth race, and is scheduled to run 16 events before running 26 races in 2008 and the entire season in 2009.

Still, Toyota's engine department has a head start on things similarly to when Elliott last led a manufacturer's charge into the Cup Series.

Toyota has been in the Craftsman Truck Series since 2004. And, perhaps coincidentally, just before the manufacture announced it would enter the Cup Series in 2007, it began dominating the trucks. A Toyota won seven of the final 12 truck races in 2005. This year, Toyotas have won half of the races.

	Brian Vickers will join Team Red Bull for the 2007 season. Credit: Autostock
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Dodge didn't have nearly the success in its entrance to Cup. But it did take baby steps in the Truck Series. It did win some races.

And it did have Elliott.

Elliott was named the flagship driver for Dodge when owner Ray Evernham bought Elliott's team and led the manufacturer back into NASCAR in 2001.

In Dodge's first Nextel Cup race, Elliott snagged the pole for the Daytona 500.

This time around, Elliott has nothing to sell, but he may have plenty to offer. A pole-winning run, a victory or even an on-track learning session isn't necessarily the goal this weekend.

"I don't think that's the jest of what we're trying to do," Elliott said. "It's more so about just getting them into race mode. With common templates and everything they do today and what they're trying to accomplish, it's basically getting their team organized and together."

Team Red Bull is led this weekend by crew chief Randy Cox, who is also Toyota's R&D manager. Cox, like most of the team's crew, knows the on-track processes, having worked for ppc Racing and Chip Ganassi Racing. Getting everyone on the same page, Elliott said, is where the challenge lies.

"To get them working together as a team, that's going to be the most important part," Elliott said. "To get them through the process of going through inspection, getting to practice, going through qualifying and then the race -- we're going to have our work cut out for us."

The team better get used to the pressure.

Entering next season as a newly formed team without owner points and, as of now, without a past champion driver, Team Red Bull has no fallback when it comes to making races. Elliott, at least, gives them the crutch of the champion's provisional in case something happens on the qualifying run. But that also depends on how Terry Labonte's car runs.

Labonte will be at Charlotte this weekend and at Texas on Nov. 5, so if the past champion's provisional comes into play for making the race, Labonte has the advantage because he's the most recent title winner (1996).

Without Elliott behind the wheel next year, though, the provisional doesn't matter and making races takes precedent over learning. Elliott's hoping that's not a problem for the three races he'll run this year for the team.

"We've got to qualify and make the race, so we've got to run a pretty good speed," Elliott said. "We've just got to give this our best shot and see what we can do."