One team that has certainly hit its stride here in the summer months has been the Red Bull Racing Team with Brian Vickers and A.J. Allmendinger. This relatively new organization struggled for much of last year, missing races and focusing on staying in the top-35 rather than running well each week.

This season, those struggles appeared to be continuing as Allmendinger failed to qualify for the first three events of the season. Jay Frye was brought in to serve as the general manager and Mike Skinner was asked to race the No. 84 for five races, with Allmendinger watching and learning on the side-lines.

Since getting back behind the wheel, Allmendinger has made each race and has felt more and more comfortable as he gains precious track time. “Since I’ve been back in the car I’ve learned to be more confident and just trust myself more,” says Allmendinger. “Everybody at Red Bull and Toyota, in general, are getting better. We are building new chassis at the shop and doing a lot of testing -- it's just all paying off and I’m proud of everyone.”

Since the All-Star weekend in Charlotte, this two-car operation has turned the corner and showed its strengths. The No. 83 team was the top crew in the Sprint Pit Crew Challenge, beating Joe Gibbs Racing’s No. 11 team.

That success continued on to the All-Star Showdown, where the Red Bull cars started 2nd and 4th (Vickers 2nd and Allmendinger 4th). Allmendinger went on to show his might that evening, winning for the first time in NASCAR and transferring into the night’s main event.

The following week during the Coca-Cola 600, Vickers had the car to beat. Leading early and often, it looked appeared that if anyone wanted to take home that trophy, they had to get around the No. 83 Toyota. That is until a vibration sent the left rear wheel flying off the car as Vickers rounded the first and second corner. What had been a promising day quickly went sour, but again showed the strength of this team.

Vickers’ 2nd-place finish in Sunday’s Pocono 500 was a team best for the Red Bull Racing Team since entering the sport a year ago. Leading late in the going, Vickers could not hold off Kasey Kahne - who just happened to have the most dominant car of the weekend.

“I’m pleased but not satisfied. I’m real proud of everybody,” Vickers said of Sunday’s effort. “We had a big turnaround from [Saturday]. We had a really bad car in practice but we made the most of it. I had a really good car there at the end and a good strategy -- and a good finish.”

In addition to Vickers’ runner-up spot, Allmendinger continued his march up the owners’ standings by scoring a career best 12th-place finish. Still outside the top-35, Sunday’s finish moved the No. 84 up two spots in the standings to 37th, just 140 points from being in the top-35 and locked into the show.

“Everybody at Red Bull Racing,” Allmendinger explained, “great job to everybody at Red Bull, back at the shop, the 83 and 84 guys, and BV (Brian Vickers) did a great job. To have us 12th -- and honestly that was a terrible finish for us, we got screwed by that yellow when Kyle (Busch) spun. We were about to pit and that put us back to 23rd. We probably should have been sixth, seventh or eighth -- right around there -- with Kurt (Busch) and Matt (Kenseth).”

Things definitely seem to be on the up and up at the Red Bull Racing Team as of late and as the summer months roll on, look for more promising runs to come. Last season’s summer months were not good to the Red Bull Racing Team, with both cars missing a number of races. This year, Vickers is securely in the top-35 and Allmendinger has been spectacular in qualifying.

Both drivers credit their team and the work going on at the shop for the overall improvement, but both point to team general manager Jay Frye as the main component of change.

“Some of it’s just time,” Vickers explains. “You can't replace time and experience. Some of it is people, and in this sport, it's all about people. Jay Frye (general manager, Red Bull Racing Team) coming on board has been great leadership from the top. It always starts from the top down, but there's been a lot of other people. Jay has been a large part of it, but I don't want to give him all the credit.”

“Jay has just brought a lot of organization to this team,” said Allmendinger. “He has a lot of NASCAR experience that just kind of  goes from top to bottom -- from everybody at the top to everybody at the bottom on the team. It shows.”

If these last few weeks are any indicator of that change going on over at the Red Bull Racing Team, look for more promising things to come.  As the season approaches the cut-off for the Chase, Vickers will be looking to run consistently and challenge for wins in order to break into the top-12 in points. For Allmendinger, the biggest challenge is to make up for his slow start to the season and continue that climb up the owners’ standings and lock himself in for next season by finishing the year in the top-35.