TEAM RED BULL
TEXAS MOTOR SPEEDWAY

ENTRIES: Red Bull No. 83 Brian Vickers and Red Bull No. 84 Mike Skinner
RACE: NASCAR Sprint Cup Series “Samsung 500”
TRACK: Texas Motor Speedway, Ft. Worth, TX DATES: April 4-6, 2008

+ RED BULL RIDES INTO FRANCE
Red Bull prend la bastille. Red Bull takes the castle.

The castle in this case is France, which lightened up a little Tuesday and opened its borders to Red Bull. The energy drink launched in Austria in 1987 and moved into Hungary in 1992 — Red Bull’s first foreign market. In 1997, Red Bull arrived in the United States. Some 3.5 billion cans were sold in more than 140 countries in 2007. Wings for Paris day:

THE JUMP: Just after sunrise, Swiss BASE jumper Ueli Geganschatz started the day with a picture-perfect leap off the top of the 1,036-foot Eiffel Tower. He fell free for three seconds before a gentle 35-second descent to the ground. A French police officer, who happened to be driving by the landing spot 650 yards away, saw the Red Bull chute and was quickly on the scene. He even briefly detained Gegenschatz. “That was just a bit of bad luck at the end,” Gegenschatz said. “The police later told me it was purely by chance that they were there.”

THE RIDE: Countless rush-hour commuters in Paris’ La Defense business district witnessed French trials rider Julien Dupont defy gravity with a motorcycle ride up, over and down the 164-foot arched roof of the CNIT center building. Two attractive women distracted security so Dupont could get his bike over the fence. “It was my greatest accomplishment on the bike ever,” Dupont said.

THE MINIS: The blue and silver Minis, 150 of them carrying 300 sampling girls, flooded and circled the Arc de Triomphe, the tricky roundabout at the end of the Champs-Elysees. They parked and surprised curious Parisians with samples of Red Bull. As one British Mini driver mentioned, “All the tourists stopped taking pictures of the Arc de Triomphe, and now they’re taking pictures of us. I think that says it all.” Reportedly, all 300 sampling girls were arrested.

+ THE STATE OF BOTH RED BULLS
Who owns the fastest qualifying lap at Texas Motor Speedway? Brian Vickers, that’s who. In November 2006, he averaged 196.235 mph in the No. 25 Chevrolet — good enough for the track record.

Vickers’ No. 83 Red Bull Toyota didn’t go nearly as fast Sunday at tiny Martinsville Speedway, but he was fighting for a top-10 finish before running out of fuel in the closing laps. Pitting under green cost Vickers three laps, and he finished 23rd. Driver and car No. 83 sit 18th in their respective standings entering the Samsung 500.

Mike Skinner, in Red Bull Racing Team’s No. 84, had a rough ride at Martinsville, bouncing and spinning his way to a 31st-place showing. But the No. 84 moved up two spots in the owner standings to 41st — only 150 points from the top 35.

The Craftsman Truck regular has started 20 Texas races over the years in NASCAR’s top three divisions, with a best Sprint Cup finish of 12th (twice). He has five truck poles.

+ BOTTOMLESS PIT
“I ate 17 hot dogs during the race, so I’m pretty proud of myself.” — AJ “Kobayashi” Allmendinger on competitive eating at Martinsville. Allmendinger, however, has no plans to enter the Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest on July 4.

+ BACK WITH BRAUN
Brian Vickers has 534 laps of competitive racing on his plate, as he returns to Braun Racing’s No. 32 for Saturday’s O’Reilly 300. In three Nationwide starts, the 2003 series champion owns a pole (Las Vegas) and best finish of fourth (Daytona).

+ CRASH COURSE IN OVALS
In Scott Speed’s first full season in his return stateside, he’ll compete at 25 different ovals now that he’s the driver of the No. 24 Bill Davis Racing Toyota in the Craftsman Truck Series.

Speed’s part-time run in trucks starts at Kansas Speedway on April 26, followed by Charlotte, Dover, Michigan, Bristol, Talladega, Martinsville, Atlanta, Texas, Phoenix and Miami. He made two starts earlier this season in the No. 46 Chevrolet, with a best finish of 10th Saturday at Martinsville.

A full ARCA season in Eddie Sharp Racing’s No. 2 Red Bull Toyota takes Speed to 17 different tracks spanning 21 races — including two on dirt. The next comes April 13 in Salem, Ind.

+ AARON ON TRIAL
Red Bull athlete Geoff Aaron is a freestyle motocross, mountain bike and BMX rider all rolled into one. After all, winning 10 U.S. National championships in trials riding requires efficiency in all three disciplines.

What is trials riding? In simple terms, it’s “technical riding on difficult terrain,” Aaron said. In Aaron terms, it’s “riding over gnarly terrain.” Top-level performances demand creative genius and technical mastery, as a rider (Aaron’s bike has no seat and weighs only 150 pounds) is scored on each section of an obstacle course. Anytime a foot leaves a peg and touches the ground, that’s bad.

Witness trials riding when Aaron navigates obstacles Friday through Sunday at Brookshire Grocery in the backstretch campgrounds outside TMS.

+ RIDERS EVERYWHERE
In addition to Geoff Aaron, Team Honda’s supercross contingent of Travis Elliott, Tommy Hahn, Davi Millsaps, Andrew Short and Ivan Tedesco will visit Texas, as will Robbie Maddison — the Red Bull-backed rider who soared 322 feet, 7½ inches to break the world motorcycle jumping record Jan. 1 in Las Vegas.

+ RIDE ’EM, COWBOYS
The five-stop Red Bull X-Fighters tour opens Friday at the Plaza de Toros in Mexico City. Stop No. 3 on June 14 takes the X-Fighters to the Fort Worth Stockyards, where the Wild West will unite with the modern spectacle of freestyle moto X.

The invitation-only competitions pit the best in FMX against each other in a unique, confined environment where a rider’s flair is in the crowd’s face. Typically, X-Fighters events are contested in bullfighting arenas, but in the Stockyards, FMX meets rodeo.

Other 2008 X-Fighters stops include Brazil (May 3, samba), Germany (July 4, industry) and Spain (July 17-18, bullfighting).