Nascar Roundup
Dodge officials stated they will return in Nascar for the 2009 season. They will continue to support Gillette Everham Motorsports and Penkse Racing, with Petty Enterprises in question (Rumored to be merging with GEM).
Dodge also stated they would cut back 30% of their budget for technical and manufacture support. They will also cut back on marketing, track sponsorship and other race related marketing ties.
Dodge has been real optomistic about their return in 2009...biggest question is what they are dodging, the future after 2009?
Dodge allowed Ganassi out of their contract to merge with DEI and Chevrolet. Robby Gordon had no contract with Dodge and opted to move to Toyota. GEM attempted a deal to move to Toyota, but Nascar stopped that move. "We have to look out for everyone involved in our sport, including the manufactures. When Toyota came into our sport we set an appropriate number of teams that Toyota could sign. We don't have a say on which teams can or can not sign with Toyota, but they do have ceiling as far as number of teams. We have been assured by Dodge they will return in 2009 and uphold their contracts. Because of Penske and GEM's involvement with the new Dodge engines, we expect them to honor their contractual agreements." said Jim Hunter.
The biggest problem for the Dodge teams of GEM & Penkse is what happens if Dodge leaves after 2009. Both organization will field atleast 3 teams and possibly 4. The most likely manufacture to try and negotiate with one or even both of these organizations is Ford. Ford has the Roush team and the (off the record satellite team) Yates Racing. The Wood Bros have dropped to limited schedule leaving only 8 full time teams...only 1 more than Dodge.
Chevy on the other hand has a full stable with RCR (4 teams) Hendrick (4 teams) DEI-Ganassi (4 teams) and Stewart-Haas (2 teams) - twice what Dodge has.
Toyota has 9 teams with MWR (3 teams), Red Bull Racing (2 teams), JGR (3 teams) and RGM (1 team), (both MWR & JGR expect to inrease to 4 teams in the near future).