FUMES

March 7, 2012

Penske's move to Ford: It's about commitment. And winning.

By Peter M. De Lorenzo

(Posted 3/5, 11:00 a.m.) Detroit. Roger Penske's decision to make the move from Dodge to Ford beginning in the 2013 NASCAR Sprint Cup season caught nearly everyone by surprise late last week. Note, I said nearly everyone. But there were signs that things were not going to continue along as they were with regard to the Penske Racing - Dodge/Fiat-Chrysler relationship long before the formal announcement.

First of all, it's difficult for outsiders to understand all the nuances going on within these auto companies here. As fans, a lot of people don't want the backstory, they just want to enjoy the racing on the track and that's totally understandable. But the backstory in this case had everything to do with Penske's decision, so it's worth covering here today.

With Chrysler being an Italian-owned company (it should be referred to as Fiat-Chrysler), it's clear that there's a difference in perspective between the Italian executives in charge and the enthusiasts at work in some of the racing and performance programs out at its U.S. Auburn Hills headquarters. Make no mistake, there are hard-core enthusiasts out in Auburn Hills, and SRT leader and noted designer Ralph Gilles is just the most visible of those people. Do they want to win any less than the other guys? I can emphatically say, of course not. But I can also safely say that the interest and enthusiasm demonstrated by these hard-core enthusiasts for NASCAR Sprint Cup racing does not translate to the Italian executives in charge and therein lies the rub.

The Fiat-Chrysler executive team is led by the ubiquitous Sergio Marchionne, a self-promoting genius and career opportunist who has managed to turn the "gifting" of Chrysler to Fiat by the U.S. government (when there were no other options) into his own personal promotional vehicle. Be that as it may, Marchionne has made his reputation by being a ruthless cost-cutter and his henchmen follow him in their equally ruthless dealings with suppliers, so forget whatever takeaway you've been getting from the Chrysler ads of late and its glowing (and cynically inaccurate) "Imported from Detroit" ad theme, because the reality is that this is just another import-owned car company trying to squeeze out as much market share and profits as they can possibly muster. And, they couldn't care less about NASCAR to boot.

And it wasn't hard for Roger Penske to figure that out. Not only was his Dodge-branded Sprint Cup racing program not on Marchionne and company's radar, all signs were apparent that the likelihood of any of this changing was slim and none. And the likelihood of Fiat-Chrysler wanting to spend less on NASCAR was a very real possibility as well.

But Roger Penske wants to win in NASCAR. Not just win a bunch of races, but win a Sprint Cup championship. He has won nearly everything else there is to win in sports car and Indy car racing, but he has never won a championship in NASCAR, and it rankles him. And the more he observed the Fiat-Chrysler Italian leadership ignore his racing program, the more he realized that he couldn't get where he wanted to go with them. Not that Roger isn't used to going his own way and going it alone if he has to, of course, because he's done that throughout his career to great effect. But in today's Sprint Cup racing where you're going up against juggernaut teams with voluminous support from GM, Ford and Toyota, that isn't going to cut it.

So Roger has thrown his full weight and commitment in with Ford and Ford Racing beginning in 2013. In fact that word "commitment" was used by Roger three times in his remarks during the announcement that he was aligning with Ford and it's significant. On any given NASCAR weekend you will see representatives from the Ford upper management team at the race track. These are committed enthusiasts, too, and it shows. They love racing and they love to win and want to win as much as Roger does. So these two parties will do well together in their firm commitment to win in Sprint Cup racing.

A few questions still remain, the most important being, will Roger Penske use Roush-Yates engines in 2013? I can safely say that won't happen. Aero tweaks and chassis information might be shared between Roush Fenway and Penske Racing, but make no mistake, Roger Penske didn't put together one of the best engine programs in the business to just walk away from it in 2013. So rest assured the Penske Racing Fords will have Penske Racing engines powering them.

One more thing needs to be said about this story. Anyone who thinks Roger Penske and Penske Racing won't give everything they have to win in their swan song season with Dodge doesn't know Roger Penske. I expect them to be more formidable than ever, in fact.

The bigger question is where does Dodge and Fiat-Chrysler go from here? Ralph Gilles is going to appear on Wind Tunnel with Dave Despain on SPEED next Sunday evening to answer that question. But right now, unless Fiat-Chrysler all of a sudden dumps a boatload of money into a "B" NASCAR team in order to possibly elevate it to "A" effort, they got nothin'.

(Nigel Kinrade, Autostock, 2012)

Publisher's Note: As part of our continuing series celebrating the "Glory Days" of racing, we're proud to present another noteworthy image from the Ford Racing Archives. - PMD

Sebring, Florida, March 2, 1967. Bruce McLaren and Mario Andretti pose with the race winning No. 1 Ford Mk IV 427 the morning after their stunning 12-lap victory at the 12 Hours of Sebring. The duo sat on the pole with a time of 2:48.000 flat. A.J. Foyt and Lloyd Ruby finished second in the No. 2 Ford Mk IIB 427 and Scooter Patrick and Gerhard Mitter finished third in their factory-entered Porsche 910. Random video from the event can be seen here.

Publisher's Note: Like these Ford racing photos? Check out www.fordimages.com. Be forewarned, however, because you won't be able to go there and not order something. - PMD

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