Team Red Bull has parted ways with Doug Richert, crew chief for Brian Vickers’ No. 83 Toyota, the team announced Tuesday.

Randy Cox, Team Red Bull’s research and development manager, will take over as crew chief for Vickers, currently 39th in the NASCAR Nextel Cup points standings, starting this weekend at Atlanta.

Vickers has failed to qualify for the past two Cup races, at Lowe’s Motor Speedway and Martinsville, and has missed three of the past four.

“In any NASCAR Nextel Cup Series organization, the crew chief and driver are the two key forces that make a race team competitive, and there must be a balance in both personalities and methods for achieving goals,” Red Bull competition director Elton Sawyer said in a statement released by the team.

“Individually, each person can be strong at their job, but if they aren’t efficient collectively, then changes must be made so both sides can reach their optimum potential. The formula we’d put together to try and make the No. 83 team successful was no longer working, so it was an amicable decision to part ways.”

Richert, 47, won a series-best six races with Greg Biffle in 2005. At age 20 in 1980, his rookie year, Richert became the youngest crew chief in history to win a Cup championship when he helped Dale Earnhardt to the title.

Cox also had early success, winning with Jamie McMurray at Rockingham in 2004 in his debut as a Busch Series crew chief. Cox has also served as crew chief for David Stremme and Kenny Wallace in the Busch Series.

Kenny Wallace will practice and qualify for Jamie McMurray in the No. 26 Roush Fenway Racing Ford for NASCAR Busch Series Sam's Town 250 this weekend at Memphis Motorsports Park.

Wallace will practice the car Friday and qualify it Saturday morning. McMurray will fly from Atlanta Motor Speedway following Nextel Cup practice Saturday to compete in the Busch event that afternoon. The No. 26 team has not competed in all the races this year and must qualify on speed.

The Roush Fenway Racing stable of drivers have kept a keen eye on the Major League Baseball playoffs – especially the stunning comeback the Boston Red Sox made to clinch a trip to their second World Series in four years.

Carl Edwards for one, has gotten some inspiration from the Red Sox beating-the-odds storyline. The Sox came back from a 3-1 deficit to defeat the Cleveland Indians and move on to the Fall Classic, where they will take on the upstart Colorado Rockies. Now Edwards looks to close a 285-point deficit in the Chase for the NASCAR Nextel Cup.

“I think it’s great the way the Red Sox came back to beat the Indians,” said Edwards. “I was watching Manny Ramirez’s interview after the game and he said ‘we worked hard and never gave up’ – that was great and really inspiring. With that attitude and drive I have no doubt that the Sox will win the World Series.”

Jamie McMurray plans to catch Game 1 at Fenway Park. “As part of Roush Fenway Racing, I’m not only excited for the whole Red Sox organization, but also for my friend Josh Beckett,” said McMurray. “Hopefully, I can make it up to Wednesday’s game and cheer them on.”

COVINGTON - The Kentucky Speedway’s antitrust lawsuit is scheduled to go to trial in March, but lawyers representing NASCAR and International Speedway Corp. soon will try to convince a federal judge that a trial isn’t necessary.

U.S. District Judge William Bertelsman will hear arguments Nov. 19 in Covington on several motions filed in the case - including a sealed motion for summary judgment filed earlier this year by NASCAR and ISC.

The speedway filed suit in July 2005 alleging NASCAR and ISC violated antitrust laws by restricting which tracks host Nextel cup races and trying to “monopolize the market for hosting premium stock car racing events.”

In an amended complaint filed in April, the speedway said it wanted NASCAR to develop "objective factors" for the awarding of Nextel Cup races; for the France family to give up control of either ISC (a public company that operates tracks and whose majority of voting stock is owned by the Frances) or NASCAR (a private company owned by the Frances); for ISC to sell at least eight of the 12 tracks it owns that host Nextel Cup events; and more than $200 million in damages.

1993: Jimmy Means competes in his 455th and final Cup race, finishing 29th in the AC Delco 500 at Rockingham. For his career, Means leads 52 laps, including one in his first race and one in his last. Means completes only 20 laps of his first Cup race, the 1976 Daytona 500, but leads one.