Red Bull getting closer on manufacturer, Vickers (cont'd)

"So sometimes, like with the meeting we had this week, is just to recapture where we're at and where we're going, the goals of the team and the goals of the company and make sure everyone's lined up and on the same page. If you have one three-hour meeting in a year, there's a lot of stuff to digest and go through, and that's basically what they're doing now.

"They had some homework for me, which I've done, and I think we've shown a path where this company will go over the next 10 years. Especially nowadays with the economy and the way things are going on, we have to be frugal and do the right thing -- we always have and will continue to do that -- and I think the path has been laid out for the next five or 10 years, that will be reviewed and we'll be able to have some sort of conclusion shortly."

The veteran motorsports executive, who joined Red Bull's third-year Cup program last season, said that's part of the reasoning that has put Red Bull in position to evaluate whether it will stay with the Toyota Camrys it's run since it joined the series, or switch to another carmaker, speculated to be Chevrolet.

"That's part of what they're reviewing," Frye said. "I got an e-mail [Friday] with some questions and we responded, and I think we should have this all sorted up pretty shortly."

David Wilson, senior vice president of Toyota Racing Development, came from a meeting with Frye to Pocono's infield media center and said, despite knowing about Red Bull's evaluation process, the manufacturer hadn't changed its focus.

"The bottom line is we continue to work with Red Bull and we continue to desire a longer-term partnership," Wilson said. "We hope that they come back. We've been very transparent and they are certainly looking at the marketplace today and their various options, but it hasn't changed our basic position.

"Red Bull, along with Michael Waltrip [Racing], are what we call our freshman class, and we have a sense of loyalty to Jay and the Red Bull folks -- they're important to us. We helped bring them into the sport, and ultimately the measure of Toyota as a manufacturer is Waltrip and Red Bull because Joe Gibbs Racing was already a championship team.

"Getting David Reutimann into the winner's circle meant that box was checked and frankly, Red Bull should've already won at least one race by now, but we really won't feel like we've succeeded until we get them into the winner's circle. Considering it's only our third year, we have more work to do and we'd like to finish that story."

A Chevrolet spokesperson said the manufacturer would have no comment regarding its team lineup.

Frye said Red Bull had no designs currently on expanding beyond two cars or diversifying into the Nationwide Series, where Vickers' teammate, Scott Speed, has about a half-dozen more races to run this season with Michael Waltrip Racing.

"My opinion right now is we have to make sure these two teams are shored up and competing at a high level every week, and once you can do that, that's when you start looking at expanding," Frye said. "The whole team has come a long way, we made great gains in 2008 and statistically we're ahead of where we were last year. Just like everybody else, we've had some bad luck and we've had some things happen.

"We could easily already be in the Chase or in the top 12, but right now we're [120] out [of 12th] with six [races] to go. So mathematically it's certainly possible and we certainly have every expectation of making a great effort to try to get in it.

"We're on our second version of cars, and the guys in the fabrication shop and the engineering department have done a phenomenal job of building these new cars. The 83 team is much different, personnel-wise, than it was last year, with [crew chief] Ryan Pemberton coming in, and we have a new race engineer.

"Probably 70 percent of that team is different than what it was last year and they made great gains last year. A lot of the people off of last year's team are still with the company, they're good people, just in different spots."

Frye said that led his team into 2009 with great expectations, including the organization's first victory.

"The team made such great gains last year, that expectations for this season were very high -- and rightfully so," Frye said. "Obviously our goal at the start of the year was that we needed to win races and we needed to make the Chase. Mathematically we can still make the Chase and we have the expectation that we can still win a race or two before the year ends, even if we don't make the Chase.

"So we're right there on what our goals were, though we haven't made them, yet. It's funny, but when you're talking about a win, I feel like when we do win one, it'll be more of a relief, because we have great internal pressure on ourselves to win one of these things -- we've been close and we've had cars fast enough to do it.

"We've made some mistakes along the way and we've done everything we can to eliminate those mistakes so they don't happen again. You've got to win the first one, first. There will be some relief when we do that and it'll be the second one that will be fun."