Vickers wonders why he hasn’t been re-signed to Red Bull-UPDATE
AutoRacingSport.com
UPDATE: Vickers said he and Red Bull have an oral agreement on a new deal, but nothing has been signed yet.
“As far as I’m aware, they want to keep me,” Vickers said. “We’ve agreed to everything verbally. They’ve stressed to me time and time again that they want me to stay.”
But Vickers said without a deal, he has no choice but to continue to look at every available option.
“I’m keeping all my options open,” he said. “All options are on the table, and the ball is in their court.”
Vickers said he feels he’s done enough to earn a job in the No. 83 car next year.
“We’ve led a lot of laps, sat on five poles,” he said. “We’ve done the most with what we have, and if that’s not good enough …”
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Where will Brian Vickers be next year? Surprisingly, there is no answer to that question yet. The 25-year-old racer reached a verbal commitment to remain with Team Red Bull for another year last winter, yet nothing has been inked as of this week. Vickers called the situation “strange” and expected to have a contract signed before now.
“We went into the season, with the economy and things the way they were, there were some uncertainties, which is understandable, I think, with anyone in corporate America these days,” said Vickers, who won his fifth Cup pole of the year Thursday at Chicagoland. “So, I didn’t really think that much about it. Right now, we still haven’t agreed on a contract. There were many times where I went into the week expecting it to be signed and sent to me to sign, and that didn’t happen. Why? I can’t answer that. That’s a question for Red Bull and a question for Jay (Frye).”
Frye, Red Bull team manager, is expected to meet with owner Dietrich Mateschitz next week in Austria to hash out details of Vickers’ contract and the possible technical alignment with Hendrick Motorsports in 2010. Vickers remains happy with the organization and hopes to have answers upon Frye’s return.
