2019 Robby Gordon Headquarters
RGM not a Dodge team in '09?
Dodge teams hoping to work more closely together in Sprint Cup Series
CORAL GABLES, Fla. – The likelihood of losing Chip Ganassi Racing among the Dodge camp could impact the existing Dodge teams, and team co-owner Richard Petty called on Dodge teams to begin working more closely together than they have in the past.
Petty, speaking at the NASCAR champion’s news conference Thursday, said that with Roush Fenway Racing having affiliate teams at Yates Racing, Hendrick Motorsports having an affiliate at Haas CNC Racing and the Toyota teams working together, the Dodge teams need to do a better job of pooling information.
Dodge is expected to lose the two Chip Ganassi Racing Sprint Cup teams in the Dale Earnhardt Inc.-Ganassi merger. That will leave Penske Racing, Petty Enterprises and Gillett Evernham Motorsports as the other Dodge organizations. GEM had been rumored to be flirting with Toyota, but a team spokesman said Thursday that the team is expected to field Dodges again next season.
“When you look at the Dodge teams, you have four different teams but they’re all independent,” Petty said. “We have not thrown the stuff in the middle of the pot like the other teams have done. Hopefully maybe we can overcome some of that this year, especially with losing one Dodge team for sure and I don’t know about a couple of the rest of us.
“Hopefully we can all sort of get over in a corner somewhere and get our act together and instead of working independently, we need to get together and make this work. If we had done that, it would make it a lot stronger.”
No Dodge team made the Chase For The Sprint Cup, but Penske and GEM have won races this year.
“When you have more Dodge cars, it’s more opportunities to win,” Penske driver Kurt Busch said. “You want quality in teams. We hope there might be an opportunity for a team to come over to Dodge and pick up more cars. It gives you the positive feeling that you’re moving in the right direction when you have more guys around.”
Busch said it’s as much a team thing as it is a Dodge thing that it hasn’t been a great year for the Dodge stable.
“I don’t feel like we’ve fallen behind [as a manufacturer],” Busch said. “It goes back to the quantity. We just don’t’ have as many opportunities to win each week.
“But you can always look back at the manufacturers and see that things go in cycles. The other thing that I look at is teams go in cycles as well. … Next year it could be us or it could be the year after.”
Petty Enterprises driver Bobby Labonte noted that Joe Gibbs Racing has ran well in Pontiacs, Chevrolets and now Toyotas.
“It’s important to have good teams,” Labonte said. “I guess it’s pretty well known what Ganassi might do. But hopefully we can carry on and be good teams for them. … A lot of it depends on the team. The manufacturers help out tremendously and we want the support and we get a lot of support.”
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More on Earnhardt-Ganassi Merger: A key player in the merger was Dodge Motorsports, which gave its blessing to team owner Chip Ganassi to pursue the partnership with a Chevy organization. "Number one, we want all of our business partners to be healthy like we want to be healthy,'' said Mike Delahanty, the senior manager of Dodge Motorsports. "Under these unprecedented times there are business solutions that no one ever thought possible. The blessing is, 'Chip, we want you to be healthy and viable long-term. We want you to have a business plan that does that. Bring us a business plan that does that and we'll talk about it, even if means letting him go.''' Sources close to the situation said the teams are expected to compete under the Chevy/General Motors banner of DEI. That would leave Dodge with three cars in Penske Racing, three in Gillett Evernham Motorsports and one or two in Petty Enterprises. Martin Truex Jr. [#1] and Aric Almirola [#8] will remain the drivers from the DEI side and Juan Pablo Montoya [#42] will be kept from Ganassi. The driver of the fourth car [# 41] will be named at a future date. AJ Allmendinger, Scott Riggs and Regan Smith are among the candidates for that seat.(ESPN.com)(11-13-2008)
CORAL GABLES, Fla. – The likelihood of losing Chip Ganassi Racing among the Dodge camp could impact the existing Dodge teams, and team co-owner Richard Petty called on Dodge teams to begin working more closely together than they have in the past.
Petty, speaking at the NASCAR champion’s news conference Thursday, said that with Roush Fenway Racing having affiliate teams at Yates Racing, Hendrick Motorsports having an affiliate at Haas CNC Racing and the Toyota teams working together, the Dodge teams need to do a better job of pooling information.
Dodge is expected to lose the two Chip Ganassi Racing Sprint Cup teams in the Dale Earnhardt Inc.-Ganassi merger. That will leave Penske Racing, Petty Enterprises and Gillett Evernham Motorsports as the other Dodge organizations. GEM had been rumored to be flirting with Toyota, but a team spokesman said Thursday that the team is expected to field Dodges again next season.
“When you look at the Dodge teams, you have four different teams but they’re all independent,” Petty said. “We have not thrown the stuff in the middle of the pot like the other teams have done. Hopefully maybe we can overcome some of that this year, especially with losing one Dodge team for sure and I don’t know about a couple of the rest of us.
“Hopefully we can all sort of get over in a corner somewhere and get our act together and instead of working independently, we need to get together and make this work. If we had done that, it would make it a lot stronger.”
No Dodge team made the Chase For The Sprint Cup, but Penske and GEM have won races this year.
“When you have more Dodge cars, it’s more opportunities to win,” Penske driver Kurt Busch said. “You want quality in teams. We hope there might be an opportunity for a team to come over to Dodge and pick up more cars. It gives you the positive feeling that you’re moving in the right direction when you have more guys around.”
Busch said it’s as much a team thing as it is a Dodge thing that it hasn’t been a great year for the Dodge stable.
“I don’t feel like we’ve fallen behind [as a manufacturer],” Busch said. “It goes back to the quantity. We just don’t’ have as many opportunities to win each week.
“But you can always look back at the manufacturers and see that things go in cycles. The other thing that I look at is teams go in cycles as well. … Next year it could be us or it could be the year after.”
Petty Enterprises driver Bobby Labonte noted that Joe Gibbs Racing has ran well in Pontiacs, Chevrolets and now Toyotas.
“It’s important to have good teams,” Labonte said. “I guess it’s pretty well known what Ganassi might do. But hopefully we can carry on and be good teams for them. … A lot of it depends on the team. The manufacturers help out tremendously and we want the support and we get a lot of support.”
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More on Earnhardt-Ganassi Merger: A key player in the merger was Dodge Motorsports, which gave its blessing to team owner Chip Ganassi to pursue the partnership with a Chevy organization. "Number one, we want all of our business partners to be healthy like we want to be healthy,'' said Mike Delahanty, the senior manager of Dodge Motorsports. "Under these unprecedented times there are business solutions that no one ever thought possible. The blessing is, 'Chip, we want you to be healthy and viable long-term. We want you to have a business plan that does that. Bring us a business plan that does that and we'll talk about it, even if means letting him go.''' Sources close to the situation said the teams are expected to compete under the Chevy/General Motors banner of DEI. That would leave Dodge with three cars in Penske Racing, three in Gillett Evernham Motorsports and one or two in Petty Enterprises. Martin Truex Jr. [#1] and Aric Almirola [#8] will remain the drivers from the DEI side and Juan Pablo Montoya [#42] will be kept from Ganassi. The driver of the fourth car [# 41] will be named at a future date. AJ Allmendinger, Scott Riggs and Regan Smith are among the candidates for that seat.(ESPN.com)(11-13-2008)
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Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Trooper Blue on
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I've seen several articles in recent days that list the Dodge line up for 2009 and RGM is missing from all of them... Simply forgotten or ???
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Dodge official says Chip Ganassi must do what's best for his race team
MIAMI – Dodge will support Chip Ganassi Racing’s decision on whether its merger with Dale Earnhardt Inc. results in the loss of two current Cup cars to the Dodge roster, Dodge motorsports manager Mike Delahanty said Wednesday.
The new Earnhardt-Ganassi Racing is expected to be a four-Chevrolet operation since DEI owner Teresa Earnhardt also owns part of the Earnhardt-Childress Racing Technologies engine shop that produces Chevrolets. The merger announcement Wednesday did not indicate that the team will be going to Chevrolet.
“More information will roll out in the next couple of days, including the brand of vehicles this new combined team will run,” Delahanty said in a phone interview. “We’ve been having a lot of discussions with Chip [Ganassi] on this topic and the common thread throughout these discussions is we want to be able to support Chip in any fashion that will help him as a businessman and a racer to be able to field cars in all forms of NASCAR.
“Whatever that takes, we’re willing to work with them on that. That’s why we’re fine with them talking to DEI. … We’ll use the analogy, the health of the patient – we want the patient to be healthy. If it means the new venture and DEI means his health can continue onward, we’re behind that.”
Ganassi has been a Dodge team since Dodge re-entered Cup in 2001.
“In extraordinary cases like this, if it means it’s a structural change to the way they do their business, that stuff is going to happen,” Delahanty said. “We don’t become so entrenched in our racing partners that we steer their business.
“They’re independent race teams, and we support them. But we don’t get into their business affairs.”
A Ganassi departure from the Dodge camp would leave the manufacturer with Penske Racing, Gillett Evernham Motorsports and Petty Enterprises in its stable.
No Dodge team made the Chase For The Sprint Cup this year, but Penske and GEM have won races. Ganassi’s No. 42 team of driver Juan Pablo Montoya is 25th in owners points, while the No. 41 team of Reed Sorenson is 32nd. There are five Dodge teams (two Penske, two GEM, one Petty) ahead of Montoya’s and two (one GEM, one Petty) behind Sorenson’s.
“You don’t need a certain numbers of cars to be successful. … It requires the right combination of teams and drivers and technology to get the job done,” Delahanty said. “Your odds certainly do increase by the number out there. But it doesn’t help to have a lot of cars filling the finishing lineup from spot 25 on back.
“You’d rather have the spots filled with your brand from position 15 forward.”
Would the remaining Dodge teams get more money?
“That’s a business decision that we would look at,” Delahanty said. “If something like that did happen, that’s something we wouldn’t share. We like to keep our business terms kind of close [to the vest].”
Delahanty reiterated that Dodge will remain in the sport.
“No. 1, we’re going to be there,” he said. “We’re going to be racing cars in Sprint Cup. We have commitments to our teams to do so, so we’re going to be there.
“We’re not walking away from the sport. … The majority of our teams are pretty secure in their sponsorship, so based on that, if there are cases on this, we want everyone to be healthy. We want everyone to get through this tough period.”
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Permalink Reply by Keith on
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I thinks it's just a slip. It sucks if it is, but with all of the silly season "leaks" that have been spread around, surely RGM leaving DODGE would be one of them if there were any hint of it.
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Permalink Reply by SrMumz on
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Robby is like that chick we all used to date were you never knew if she was REALLY your girlfriend.
He jumped from Ford a week before Daytona.....what is going to stop him from doing the same to Dodge? It is very apparent in today's NASCAR that he isn't going to receive 100% factory support were ever he goes, so go where the horsepower is.....I'll bet we see him in a Chevrolet at Daytona.
The guy has been flighty his whole career.
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Permalink Reply by Bigzoom on
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It has to do with the fact RGM doesn't have an agreement with Dodge. That doesn't mean Robby can't run Dodge and/or get engines from Penske. Everything I've been hearing latley is Robby is very happy with where his team is heading now. He is happy with his Dodge and Penkse engines combo. If he's able to extend his agreement with Penske then Robby will be in a Dodge.
With Ganassi leaving, RGM could approach Dodge about support, but I would expect he would approach Roger Penkse about support first. Why would Robby want to sign a long term agreement with Dodge when Dodge doesn't even know if they'll survive more than another year in Nascar. Plus with Nascar banning testing next year, it will help teams like RGM catch up. Robby is in a good position right now, he learned alot from his "technical & marketing agreement" with GEM. He knows what he needs from a team that supplies him now. I'm sure his deal with Penske was better just by experience. His car sure does run better.
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Permalink Reply by NIKAL on
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Exactly what BigZoom said. RGM does run Dodges, but Robby does not have a manufacture contract with Dodge. Which means Robby will not get any technical support from the manufacture. Now with that said if RGM can get a technical support alliance with Penske, then it is almost like having factory support, because Penske has that deal with Dodge.
Also dont count out that RGM might get a manufacture support contract from Dodge, now that Ganassi has moved over to Chevy. Both Dodge and RGM could easily sign a 1 year deal. That deal could be like RGM's Ford deal was where the Manufacture picks up the engine costs. Ford payed for RGM's Roush motors and Dodge could do the same with RGM and Penske.
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Permalink Reply by Racingwench on
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Robby was on the Jayski podcast earlier this week. He stated that he was not sure about manufacturer for 2009
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