Redbull Racing decided to release Casey Mears from his racing duties in the No. 83 Red Bull Toyota in the Sprint Cup Series. Main reason for his replacement was a latest controversial incident with Scot Speed at Michigan International Speedway. Furthermore Mears will be replaced by Swedish drivers.
During the Heluva Good! Sour Cream Dips 400, Casey Mears made contact and spun teammate Scott Speed near the apex of Turns 1 and 2 at the 2-mile track, releasing memories from the F1 accident during the Turkish Grand Prix between the two F1 drivers of RedBull Racing, Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel. After the race, Speed was critical of his fill-in teammate, who had a best finish of 22nd at Dover in four starts in the No. 83.
This time RedBull Racing was more determined and decided to replace Casey Mears with the Swedish German Touring Car competitor Mattias Ekstrom who is also sponsored by RedBull, ahead of the Toyota/Save Mart 350 Sront Cup race. Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, California is the unique NASCAR circuit where drivers will race in a typical racetrack instead of an oval Speedway and the team decided to hire a circuit stock car expert. Furthermore for the rest of the season in the oval Speedways, RedBull Racing decided to Swedish Reed Sorenson, whose NASCAR career has bounced between the Sprint Cup and Nationwide series.
RedBull Vice Presidenty and general manager Jay Frey announced:
"Our unique situation has afforded us the opportunity to try some different things, and we're continuing to do that with Reed. We appreciate Casey's work and everything he's done the past five weeks."
Sorenson, 24, made his Cup debut in October 2005 at Atlanta. He's made 148 Cup starts -- three this season -- with five top-five and 14 top-10 finishes. His best season came in 2007 when he earned three top-fives and six top-10s, including his first pole position at Indianapolis.
This season, Sorenson has been driving multiple cars for Braun Racing in the Nationwide Series. In 10 starts, Sorenson has four top-fives and eight top-10s, an average finish of 9.6 and is currently 13th in points.
