TEAM RED BULL
LOWE’S MOTOR SPEEDWAY
BANK OF AMERICA 500

ENTRIES: Red Bull No. 83 Brian Vickers and Red Bull No. 84 AJ Allmendinger
RACE: NASCAR NEXTEL Cup, “Bank of America 500”
TRACK: Lowe’s Motor Speedway, Concord, NC
DATES: October 11-13, 2007

+ CHARLOTTE: GOOD TO BE HOME
This weekend, there’s no rushing to the team plane, no rental cars with five seats for six people, no doubling up in tiny hotel rooms, no sleazy sheets that stink of menthols and stale beer. This weekend, it’s just Red Bull Racing, our own homes and the 30 miles that separate us from Lowe’s Motor Speedway.

Any NASCAR race on the outskirts of Charlotte is a welcome one, and there was an extra-special event held the last time the Nextel Cup Series stayed home.

Brian Vickers, driving Red Bull Racing’s No. 83 Toyota, endured NASCAR’s longest day and night to lead 76 laps and finish fifth, this despite wheeling a beaten and battered Camry that had no power steering when the last of 600 miles were complete.

Never mind that. Sure, Vickers and teammate AJ Allmendinger are expecting stellar weekends, but Red Bull Racing’s road crew is anticipating a three-day stint that finally includes family, friends and the old NASCAR phrase, “We get to sleep in our own beds.” This is everyone’s chance to shine in front of everyone that matters.

NASCAR teams travel 10s of thousands of miles each season, so when a weekend’s living arrangements don’t require check in and check out is a welcome sight. Trust us, many a spouse stuck home with the kids appreciate a weekend like this.

+ FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS
AJ Allmendinger’s seat-time experiment continues in the No. 42. He’ll drive the Chip Ganassi Racing-owned and Memorex-sponsored Dodge in Friday night’s Dollar General 300.

Allmendinger’s qualifying efforts have been solid, with three top-15 starts in four tries. There is room for improvement in the results column, as his best Busch Series finish is 14th on Sept. 7 at Richmond.

+ QUOTES
Brian Vickers, No. 83 driver: “I love racing in Charlotte, because it’s my hometown track and I get to sleep in my own bed. We’ve had some of our best runs at the intermediate tracks this year, so I like going into a weekend where I know we have a competitive race car. We still have to qualify into the race, but if we can duplicate our efforts from last time, we should be good to go to make Saturday night’s race.”

Doug Richert, No. 83 crew chief: “Lowe’s Motor Speedway is a track we’re all looking forward to going back to because we had such a good race car there in May. That was one of our strongest races this season and we pulled off a top-five finish, so we know we have something good going for us. At the same time, we also have to be realistic that there’s 50 cars trying to make the race, so seven of us aren’t going to be racing on Saturday. Our primary focus has to be on that qualifying day. We know when we make it in that we have a good race setup, but if you don’t qualify, a great setup is not going to matter.”

AJ Allmendinger, No. 84 driver: “We ran pretty well last time at Lowe’s until we were caught up in a wreck with the No. 24 car. This is a big weekend for Red Bull with our Energy Station being here again, and I want to give all our guests a good finish! I know this team is capable of doing just that, and what better week to do it than right in our backyard at Lowe’s Motor Speedway.”

Ricky Viers, No. 84 crew chief: “I always like racing in Charlotte. It is like you are the home team with the home-field advantage. Plus you get to sleep in your own bed, which will be nice for a change. We tested really well at Lowe’s Motor Speedway back in May. Then we ran in the Nextel Open and the Coca-Cola 600. Unfortunately, we were caught up in a wreck in the 600, but after putting a new nose on the car, AJ went back out on the track and ran really good lap times — even with a beat-up race car. I feel very confident that this will be a good weekend for us where we can bounce back from just barely missing the race the past two weeks. In Talladega, we missed by only 17-thousands of a second. Also we are taking the same car we ran in California, which is the same car AJ drove to our best finish of the year.”