FUMES

August 8, 2012

Dodge is done in NASCAR.

By Peter M. De Lorenzo

Editor-in-Chief's Note: As I first predicted this past Sunday, Dodge will announce its withdrawal from NASCAR now at 2:30 p.m. Tuesday afternoon (August 7th). - PMD

(Posted 8/5, 2:30 p.m.) Detroit. To say that things have been ominous for weeks now as to Fiat-Chrysler's future involvement in NASCAR with its Dodge brand is an understatement. Let's review the developments, shall we?

The Italian-owned, Auburn Hills, Michigan-based manufacturer just announced that it would not be participating in the upcoming test of the all-new 2013 Sprint Cup at Martinsville, one of four super critical tests of the all-new 2013 Sprint Cup cars. Let's be real about this, folks, you just don't miss NASCAR-sanctioned tests as a participating manufacturer, because there is too much information to be gleaned there about your competitors and there's just too much unknown about the new cars that needs to be learned. So Dodge announcing that they weren't showing up was indeed ominous news.

Then Jack Roush jumped the gun at Pocono this past Saturday by confirming that Roger Penske has decided to run Roush-Yates Ford engines next season in his switch to the Ford brand in Sprint Cup, as Mike Mulhern so ably reported. (This was much to the intense dismay of Penske Racing operatives who would have preferred to make that announcement themselves.) Roush pretty much left nothing to the imagination by telling Mulhern: "Roger and I will cooperate on things that are in our common interests, and we will compete on things that reflect our need to be independent and justify our space on the race track. We've done the bulk of the work on the 2013 car; we did invite them to have a look at what we've done in concert with Ford, and made sure we had their blessing, along with the other Ford teams involved. The indications are - though I don't know if the papers have been signed yet - that he will use our engines. He does have a few things he does different with his cars and the way the engines are mounted; so we'll respect his experience and his package preference. Whether we wind up with the same package for all Ford cars or not is yet to be determined."

The Roush comments naturally set off a wave of speculation concerning Penske's highly-successful racing engine operation, an enterprise solely devoted to building the Dodge engines that Penske Racing has used the last several years in NASCAR. It had been assumed in some circles that Fiat-Chrysler was going to go ahead and purchase the Penske engine operation, but I have it from an impeccable source that the Auburn Hills-based automaker let that previously-discussed agreement lapse.

That in turn generated additional speculation as to why Fiat-Chrysler would let that agreement lapse, and one can only assume that the company cannot get a front-line team involved on their behalf. When Andretti Autosport announced that its "window of opportunity" to field a team in NASCAR in 2013 had closed, it was correctly speculated that Fiat-Chrysler balked at the very large number that would be required to get Andretti involved in the automaker's Sprint Cup effort. After the involvement of the Andretti Autosport organization didn't come together, the residual options remaining for Dodge are decidedly second- and third-tier opportunities, even though Andretti had no substantive experience outside of IndyCar and sports cars.

When you combine a stagnant Sprint Cup engine development program with a second- or third-tier Sprint Cup effort, a team that would lack on so many levels in terms of car-building ability, technical expertise, research and development resources, and on top of that a team saddled with the inability to deal with the ramifications involved with fielding a front-line Sprint Cup effort for a major manufacturer in NASCAR, then you have a recipe for a disaster.

The final clue that Dodge is done? This past weekend marked the debut in the American Le Mans Series of the SRT Motorsports Viper Racing program in the manufacturer-intensive GT class, a two-car effort that is said to be a three-year deal with Riley Technologies, based in Mooresville, North Carolina. The production Viper is marking its return to the streets and byways, and the corresponding racing program is designed to enhance its credibility and reputation in the sports car market. This marks a return of sorts to past glory days for the Viper in international GT racing, and a program that is - oh, by the way - dramatically cheaper than a front-line Sprint Cup program.

One final note? Fiat-Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne and his cadre of Italian executives are no fans of NASCAR. They just don't buy into the NASCAR idea even though they have made some comments in the past to the contrary. There is no doubt whatsoever that the Viper program is more aligned with their European sensibilities. Don't think that matters? Believe me, it does.

All of this adds up to no Dodge factory effort in NASCAR for 2013, and in fact it may mean that Dodge is done in NASCAR for the foreseeable future.

The earliest that Dodge could return to Sprint Cup in NASCAR would be 2014, but that's only if they can pry apart a front-line team from another manufacturer.

I wouldn't hold my breath.

That's the High-Octane Truth for this week in motorsports.

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

(Dave Friedman, Courtesy of the Ford Racing Archives and Wieck Media)
Riverside, California, October 29, 1967. Parnelli Jones at speed in his No. 21 George Bignotti-prepared Lola T70 Mk.3 powered by a Ford Indianapolis DOHC engine in the Los Angeles Times Grand Prix at Riverside International Raceway. Round Five of the Canadian-American Challenge Cup that year saw Dan Gurney on the pole in his No. 36 All American Racers Lola T70 Mk.3.B Gurney-Weslake Ford. Bruce McLaren (No. 4 McLaren Cars McLaren 6A-Chevrolet) qualified second and teammate Denny Hulme (No. 5 McLaren Cars McLaren 6A-Chevrolet) qualified third. Jim Hall (No. 66 Chaparral Cars Inc. Chaparral 2G Chevrolet) qualified fourth, Mario Andretti (No. 17 Holman & Moody Honker II-Ford) fifth, and Jones sixth. Gurney (blown engine), Andretti (broken gearbox) and Hulme (broken bodywork) all DNF'd. Bruce McLaren scored the win, Jim Hall was second, Mark Donohue (No. 6 Roger Penske Racing Sunoco Lola Mk.3B-Chevrolet) was third (after qualifying tenth) and Jones came home fourth.

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

See another live episode of "Autoline After Hours" with hosts John McElroy, from Autoline Detroit, and Peter De Lorenzo, The Autoextremist, and guests this Thursday evening, at 7:00PM EDT at www.autolinedetroit.tv.

By the way, if you'd like to subscribe to the Autoline After Hours podcasts, click on the following links:

Subscribe via iTunes:

http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=311421319

Subscribe via RSS:

http://www.autolinedetroit.tv/podcasts/feeds/afterhours-audio.xml