Where have all the Dodges gone?

Amanda’s articles

By Amanda Vincent

It seems like just a few years ago when Dodge had a significant amount of representation in the Sprint Cup garage as far as numbers go. There was Chip Ganassi Racing, Evernharm Motorsports, Penske Racing, and Petty Enterprises to name a few.

With team mergers, Dodge seems to be the manufacturer that has fallen by the wayside. Evernham and Petty merged awhile back, making two Dodge teams one. Then the resulting team, Richard Petty Motorsports, announced a merger with Yates Racing, resulting in a switch to Ford.

Before the Petty-Yates merger, the Ganassi organization merged with Dale Earnhardt Inc. to form Earnhardt Ganassi Racing. With the former DEI fielding Chevrolets and CGR running Dodges, a common manufacturer had to be decided on upon the merger. The new team went to Chevrolet, meaning another decrease in Dodges on the racetrack.

As on now, it looks as if Penske Racing will be the only Sprint Cup Series team that will be putting Dodges on the track in 2010. Penske’s three cars to be driven by Kurt Busch, Sam Hornish Jr., and Brad Keselowski appear to be the only ones that will be “grabbing life by the horns” when the green flag waves on the 2010 Sprint Cup season.

Pontiac pulled out of the sport several years ago by manufacturer’s choice, General Motors making the move to focus on a single manufacturer — Chevrolet. Is Dodge following by the wayside, because teams just don’t want a Dodge anymore?

The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author and not this website.

To read more from this author, visit Louisville NASCAR Examiner.