Red Bull Racing NASCAR Team's general manager Jay Frye is on a mission: find investors that will allow him to keep his Sprint Cup team of 150-plus employees afloat amid the announced departure of Red Bull at the end of this season.
"Part of what's going on is somewhat sad. We're part of the Red Bull family, this is not a traditional sponsor possibly leaving the sport, you know. We're part of the Red Bull company," Frye explained.
"It's got a lot of great people, it's got a lot of great assets, there's a lot of enthusiasm from Red Bull for us to continue, so there's a lot of people looking and there's a lot of interest in what we have, what we've been doing and where we're going. We're really encouraged in what could be next.
"The good news now is we've got time to react," added Frye. "We're very optimistic that we can put something together relatively quickly, in the next - you hate to set a time on it but 30 to 45 days, that type of thing where we can have some sort of good solution to this."
If Frye says Red Bull decision's was a simple "change of strategy", others seem to think Dietrich Mateschitz ran out of hope for results and has decided to refocus his sporting business.
"Dietrich is a winner, and he's not going to go on forever if he doesn't get the results," said F1 marketing guru Zak Brown.
"They never really had the level of success (in NASCAR) that I'm sure they were hoping for. And on the flip side, you have enormous success around formula one. I'd probably say it's a combination of both," added Brown.
Brown said it is likely Red Bull will chose instead to spend its North American dollars on title sponsoring next year's US grand prix in Austin.
"Not that the US GP will ever be the size and magnitude of NASCAR," he admitted, "but I'm sure they're not going to just drop the NASCAR team and not fill the void in another sport or with a title sponsorship. The US is too big a market for them."
Meanwhile Frye has not ruled out that Red Bull may still be involved in its NASCAR team in some shape or form in 2012.
"Part of what's going on is somewhat sad. We're part of the Red Bull family, this is not a traditional sponsor possibly leaving the sport, you know. We're part of the Red Bull company," Frye explained.
"It's got a lot of great people, it's got a lot of great assets, there's a lot of enthusiasm from Red Bull for us to continue, so there's a lot of people looking and there's a lot of interest in what we have, what we've been doing and where we're going. We're really encouraged in what could be next.
"The good news now is we've got time to react," added Frye. "We're very optimistic that we can put something together relatively quickly, in the next - you hate to set a time on it but 30 to 45 days, that type of thing where we can have some sort of good solution to this."
If Frye says Red Bull decision's was a simple "change of strategy", others seem to think Dietrich Mateschitz ran out of hope for results and has decided to refocus his sporting business.
"Dietrich is a winner, and he's not going to go on forever if he doesn't get the results," said F1 marketing guru Zak Brown.
"They never really had the level of success (in NASCAR) that I'm sure they were hoping for. And on the flip side, you have enormous success around formula one. I'd probably say it's a combination of both," added Brown.
Brown said it is likely Red Bull will chose instead to spend its North American dollars on title sponsoring next year's US grand prix in Austin.
"Not that the US GP will ever be the size and magnitude of NASCAR," he admitted, "but I'm sure they're not going to just drop the NASCAR team and not fill the void in another sport or with a title sponsorship. The US is too big a market for them."
Meanwhile Frye has not ruled out that Red Bull may still be involved in its NASCAR team in some shape or form in 2012.