RED BULL RACING TEAM PREVIEW - DAYTONA INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY

Daytona Beach, Fla. February 4, 2009:

TESTING WITHOUT THE TEST

Brian Vickers enters Saturday night's Shootout with a level head, not the go-for- broke attitude that usually defines NASCAR's season-opening non-points event. He expects to get much more out of the race than just a check.

"It's more like a mini test," Vickers said. "Certainly, it's for fun - a dash for cash. No points are on the line, and it's all about the win. But we'll treat it as a mini test, even though the track conditions will be far different from the 500."

In three Shootout starts, Vickers' best finish is eighth in 2007, which just so happens to be the first laps Red Bull Racing Team ever ran in NASCAR.

Teammate Scott Speed's first Sprint Cup race at Daytona comes a week early with the recent announcement that each manufacturer is allowed a "wild card" entry. The change expanded the field from 24 to 28 cars and opened the door for Speed, driving the next-highest Toyota in the 2008 car owner standings, to compete.

After the top six Camrys qualified, Toyota's next car in line was the No. 22, but that car will not enter the Shootout. Instead, the seventh Toyota is Speed's No. 82, which owns the No. 84's points from last season.

BV AND THE 83 IN NYC

Since the 2008 finale at Homestead, the off-season has been littered with NASCAR banquets, holidays with the family, vacations and the media tour.

Brian Vickers did all that and more - namely taking the Red Bull show car for a spin around New York City in December. The street-legal two-seater was in town to film content for Madison Square Garden's "Red Bull Transit Chapters," which will have one of the MSG network's seven-part series focusing on Vicke rs.

Driver No. 83 and the show car grabbed the eyes of thousands of bystanders on the street and in traffic as they hit highlights such as the Brooklyn Bridge, Park Avenue, Union Square and Broadway.

"I can sum it up in two words - bad ass," Vickers said. "It was hands down the coolest experience I've had in NYC."

Vickers' off-season also included a January trip to Austria, where he spent time on the slopes and taking in the Hahnenkamm ski race in Kitzbuehel. And he rode in a Red Bull aerobatic helicopter amidst the snowy peaks of the Alps.

"It was absolutely amazing. So beautiful," Vickers said. "The helicopter ride was incredible. It gave me a different view, a different sensation of being in the mountains."

The 25-year-old ranks the Austrian Alps in his top three European destinations, right up there with the French-Italian Riviera and major cities such as Berlin, London and Paris.