Red Bull Racing announced Tuesday that Casey Mears will not return to the No. 83 Red Bull Racing Toyota when the series returns to oval tracks at New Hampshire Motor Speedway on June 27. DTM ace Mattias Ekstrom will make his NASCAR debut in the car this weekend at Infineon Raceway, and no decision has been made on who will fill the seat for the remainder of the season, the team says.

Mears took over the ride when team regular Brian Vickers was sidelined by blood clots last month at Dover. Since then, he has had a best finish of 22nd and an average finish of 27.5. The last straw for Red Bull clearly came with last weekend's race at Michigan, where Mears crashed with teammate Scott Speed and finished 36th.

Mears began the season with Key Motorsports, but failed to qualify for a string of races, including the Daytona 500, which broke his streak of 252 consecutive starts in the Cup Series.