Team Red Bull focusing energy on twin duels

Shot under bridges and along graffiti-covered alleys in New York, the photos in the Team Red Bull press guide have a dark, brooding quality rarely seen in NASCAR. Clad in leather jackets, pictured with a halter-topped woman on one page and a tattoo artist on the next, Brian Vickers and A.J. Allmendinger look less like racecar drivers and more like antagonists in a Quentin Tarantino film.

It's slick, hip, and stylish, another small attempt by the first-year Nextel Cup operation to show off its anti-establishment edge. But this week, as the season-opening Daytona 500 approaches, Red Bull is an outsider in more ways than one.

There are no points from 2006, no provisionals, no guarantees of making the sport's biggest race. Red Bull's two Camrys are among the 25 cars battling for seven available starting spots, four of which will be determined in Thursday's twin 150-mile qualifiers. The other Toyota teams have some breathing room -- Dave Blaney of Bill Davis Racing finished in the top-35 in owner points last year, and Dale Jarrett of Michael Waltrip Racing has a past champion's provisional.

Red Bull has none. Like former Daytona 500 champions Waltrip and Ward Burton, like series stalwarts Joe Nemechek and Bill Elliott, like rookies Paul Menard and Regan Smith, it all comes down to going fast or going home.

"I'd be lying to say we're not nervous or worried about it," Red Bull general manager Marty Gaunt said. "As a startup operation, you're always concerned about many different aspects of the team. We wish we would have had a better test at Daytona, but yeah, there are going to be some anxious moments in both 150s.

"I think if we can get past Daytona, if we can get over that hurdle, I feel pretty confident looking at California, Atlanta, and some of the other places. But Daytona is going to be the hardest deal to do."

For Red Bull, owned and sponsored by the Austrian energy-drink giant of the same name, it's been an inauspicious preseason. Vickers posted the 37th-fastest speed of the two-week Daytona test session, while Allmendinger ranked 54th out of 64 cars. During testing at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Allmendinger crashed twice and Vickers finished well down the speed chart.

"Team Red Bull seems to be looking for a bit of help," said Jim Aust, president of Toyota Racing Development.

There are hurdles off the track as well. Engineers and fabricators, hamstrung by the natural impediments of building a team from the ground up, are racing just to meet the demand for cars. "The guys at the shop, I don't envy them right now," Allmendinger said. "Every day and night, they're building cars." (Continued)