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Dodge Teams Need Boost September 5, 2008 Jack Lewis - SCR This Saturday
night, the Chase for the Cup will have its twelve participants, and the ten-week stretch to crown a champion begins. With
that said, we know over half of the drivers and teams that will make the Chase, but there are a few spots that need to be
filled, which will no doubt create some drama at NASCAR’s “action track”, Richmond International Raceway
(RIR). It’s hard to believe that we are approaching race 26. It seems like yesterday we were
at Daytona for Speedweeks, and the running of the 50th annual Daytona 500, the Great-American Race. What is also hard to believe
is that the driver who won that race, Ryan Newman, is leaving Penske Racing to drive for former rival Tony Stewart at Stewart/Haas
Racing in 2009, leaving the only team he has driven for in his eight-year Cup career. Newman’s
No. 12 Dodge crossed the finish line in February being pushed by teammate Kurt Busch, the 2004 series champ. Both teams had
high expectations, Busch’s especially, as they made a great late-season surge last year to make the Chase, and many
thought the Pat Tryson led team would contend for a championship. As of now, Busch sits 19th in points, nowhere near Chase
contention. He sits behind Jamie McMurray, who replaced Busch at the end of 2005 at Roush-Fenway Racing. To put his position
in points into perspective, McMurray is the lowest-running Roush team, and above both drivers, in 15th, is Brian Vickers,
who missed a handful of races last year with Red Bull Racing, who has sparked a remarkable turnaround sophomore season. Penske Racing is seen by many as the second
best Dodge Motorsports team, behind Gillett-Evernham Motorsports (GEM). Not even GEM has a car in the Chase, and their only
hope is from a driver who needs some luck on his part, and bad luck on the part of others ahead of him in points. That driver
is Kasey Kahne, who had a great stretch in late-May and early-June, starting with the NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race in May,
where Kahne needed a fan-vote to clinch his spot in the field. After winning the non-points race, Kahne went back-to-back
at Lowe’s Motor Speedway and won the longest race of the year, the Coca-Cola 600. Two weeks later, Kahne dominated the
Pocono 500 from the pole, and picked up his second points win of the year, earning him 20 bonus points that would be used
once Kahne made the Chase. With one race remaining, it doesn’t look like those points will be used.
The other two GEM teams have struggled badly.
Elliott Sadler joined GEM in the summer of 2006, and has really never met expectations. A lot of his poor finishes this year
have come with some really bad luck, but that can be used as an excuse so many times. Currently Sadler is 20th in the series
standings. The past few years have marked the movement of open-wheel stars coming to NASCAR stock-car
racing. Patrick Carpentier joined the group of drivers which included an Indy 500 champ and a Formula One Series champion.
Even though the Canadian driver won his first career pole at New Hampshire Motor Speedway earlier this summer, Carpentier
is still a “go-or-go-home” driver each week, and has missed four races. The
other Dodge teams have not fared any better, most notably Chip Ganassi Racing. It was only a few years ago that Ganassi had
his No. 40 team leading the points, with Sterling Marlin at the wheel. That was 2002, six years and a broken vertebrae (for
Marlin) ago. Turn the calendar ahead six years, and the No. 40 team has closed up shop, at least for now.
Dario Franchitti, the 2007 IRL champ failed to deliver the finishes to keep the team up in points, and attract sponsorship.
Franchitti announced earlier this week he will move back to the IRL in 2009. Sponsor
troubles are not only hitting one of Ganassi’s three teams, they’re hitting all of them. A few weeks ago, it was
announced that Texaco, one of NASCAR’s longest-tenured sponsors, would be leaving the sport and Juan Pablo Montoya’s
No. 42 Dodge, leaving Ganassi’s best-running team scrambling for a full-time sponsor for next year. Reed Sorenson, Ganassi’s
youngest driver, announced recently he would be leaving for GEM next season, reportedly taking Carpentier’s spot in
the No. 10 Dodge. The sponsor for Sorenson’s No. 41 Dodge, Target, has also been in the rumor mill as possibly leaving
Ganassi’s team. That would certainly spell more trouble for a team that has seen several hardships in the past year
or so. Petty Enterprises (PE) made the move from Level Cross to Mooresville in the off-season, hoping
that a change in scenery and a change closer to top Cup teams would help the performance issues PE has had for some time now.
Aside from a couple promising runs by Bobby Labonte, the Petty teams have not run as well as expected. With Kyle Petty’s
status as driver/broadcaster/owner in limbo, as well as General Mills leaving Labonte’s No. 43 car at season’s
end, Petty Enterprises, too, is scrambling to find sponsorship, and signing a driver to consistently drive the No. 45 car
can’t hurt, either. The Chase for the Cup is made up of twelve teams. With the
sport being so competitive in recent years, there should be no excuse for each manufacturer to have three teams in the Chase.
Instead, Roush-Fenway Racing has three teams in the Chase, Joe Gibbs Racing has three, Hendrick Motorsports has three, and
Richard Childress Racing has three (so far), leaving Dodge teams one shot with Kasey Kahne, who needs a great finish Saturday
night and some luck to make the ten-race Chase. What does Dodge need to do? Merge together. It will mean that some teams will have to be shut down,
but eventually they will have to anyway with sponsorship woes reaching almost every Cup team. With some teams merging, it
will mean more information being shared, and hopefully more chemistry among drivers and teams in the Dodge camp. There’s
no doubt that it is needed.
Questions, Comments: Email Jack The views and opinions in this
article are that of the writer(s) and not necessarily that of SCR
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2006 StockCar Review.
