TEAM RED BULL
DOVER INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY
DODGE DEALERS 400

ENTRIES: Red Bull No. 83 Brian Vickers and Red Bull No. 84 AJ Allmendinger
RACE: NASCAR NEXTEL Cup, “Dodge Dealers 400”
TRACK: Dover International Speedway, Dover, DE
DATES: September 21-23, 2007

+ RAIN, RAIN, PLEASE DON’T GO AWAY
Maybe a little Friday afternoon shower isn’t such a bad thing after all. Rainy days at the race track creep along ridiculously slow, but both Red Bull Racing Toyotas — finally — can breathe easy should Mother Nature pay a visit when it’s go time.

The box score doesn’t show it, but AJ Allmendinger’s 33rd-place finish Sunday at New Hampshire was a significant achievement. His No. 84 leap-frogged the Nos. 49 and 55 in the owner standings, meaning Allmendinger, for now, is guaranteed a spot in the show if it rains.

How, you ask?

Deep in the protocol for determining a starting lineup lies a statistic called “qualifying attempts.” The No. 84 has 27 of those, as do most cars, but the No. 84 is 46th in owner points — one spot ahead of the No. 55 and two better than the No. 49.

Three times weather has dissed Allmendinger, but no more, not as long as the No. 84 maintains or improves its status (the car is 65 points from 44th). And we all know Brian Vickers’ No. 83 is the first non-top 35 car locked in based on BV’s victory last fall at Talladega.

This is much easier than sweating out another go-or-go-home situation, and it’s good for the first five races of 2008, too. For the record, Friday’s forecast in Dover calls for plenty of sun and a meager 20-percent chance of precipitation. So both Red Bulls must show up stout, something they don’t mind doing. BV’s made seven of the past eight races; AJ the past four.

+ QUOTES
Brian Vickers, No. 83 driver – “Last time we raced at Dover we had a really fast car, and it was handling well, too. Unfortunately we were cording our right-rear tire and ended up blowing the tire out. So we had to come in and pit under green and lost two laps. If it hadn’t been for that incident, I bet we could have finished in the top 10 instead of 19th. We think we’ll be OK again this time around — barring any tire problems.”

Doug Richert, No. 83 crew chief – “Every weekend when we head to a track to race the COT, I feel like I’m a broken record saying how much work our COT program needs, but it’s really the truth. We struggled so bad at New Hampshire last weekend that we ended up turning our race run into a test session just to try and get back to square one again. We did some COT testing this week at Kentucky, so we’re squeezing in every possible moment to get this program better. We had a good run at Dover last time, so if we can just get back out there and do it again we should be all right for qualifying and the race.”

AJ Allmendinger, No. 84 driver – “We tested the COT in Kentucky the past two days and definitely learned and improved some things. This weekend should be good. When we raced here in June, I really enjoyed the track. I would have liked to run better than we did, but we took away some good notes from the first race and also Brian was really fast here then. I’m running the No. 42 Busch car again this weekend, and getting that additional lap time always gives me more confidence when I qualify the Cup car on Friday.”

Ricky Viers, No. 84 crew chief – “Last time we came to Dover, we were very good in practice — sixth quickest overall. The car got loose in qualifying after the track sat for awhile, though, and we barely made the race. We have a good package this week, and AJ has done well all year on high-banked, concrete tracks such as Bristol and Dover. The Busch car will definitely help him, too. We picked up two spots in owner points last week in Loudon, so hopefully we can knock off two more this week.”