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NASCAR Sprint-Cup Series
CUP: Penske, GEM To Stay With Dodge
Penske Racing and Gillett Evernham Motorsports plan on remaining with Dodge in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series in 2009...
Tom Jensen  |  Posted December 18, 2008   Harrisburg, North Carolina
Cutbacks, bailouts, dealer closings, layoffs, bankruptcy are all words which have been attached to the Chrysler name in recent months. (Photo: Harry How/Getty Images)

Penske Racing and Gillett Evernham Motorsports plan on remaining with Dodge in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series in 2009, spokesmen for both teams told SPEEDtv.com. That will leave Dodge with seven cars in NASCAR’s top division next season, down from the 13 that began the 2008 season.

Next year, Penske Racing will campaign Dodge Chargers for Kurt Busch, David Stremme and Sam Hornish Jr.; GEM will have Dodges for Kasey Kahne, Reed Sorenson and Elliott Sadler; and Petty Enterprises will campaign the No. 43, either as part of a merger with GEM or as a standalone car if merger talks don’t come to fruition.

As of right now, Chevrolet will have 14 full-time Cup cars next year, Toyota will have 11 and Ford will have eight — exactly the same numbers each of those three manufacturers had when the 2008 season began. Dodge teams, meanwhile will field six fewer cars than they started last season.

Gone are the Dodge entries of BAM Racing, three Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates cars, one Robby Gordon Motorsports entry and one from Petty Enterprises. BAM closed early last season Ganassi is switching to Chevy as part of its merger with Dale Earnhardt Inc., Gordon is moving to Toyota and with or without a GEM merger, Petty is going down to a single car from two last year.

The current total of full-time NASCAR Sprint Cup teams for 2009 appears to be 40, although as many as five of those teams have not confirmed sponsors and/or drivers for next season, which means the actual total might fall to as low as 35 by the time the season begins. Among the teams still looking for drivers and/or sponsors are Earnhardt-Ganassi, Bill Davis Racing and Hall of Fame Racing.

And everyone is keeping a close eye on what’s happening in Detroit and Washington D.C., as General Motors and Chrysler, LLC, Dodge’s parent company, are in dire financial circumstances and hoping for federal bailout money to avoid total collapse.

Chrysler is closing all 30 of its North American auto manufacturing plants until Jan. 19, 2009, while General Motors and Ford will temporarily halt production at another 30 U.S. plants.

“No one is immune,” Ed Kim, director of industry analysis for Tustin, Calif.-based consulting firm AutoPacific Inc. told business news service Bloomberg.com. “The industry is imploding to a degree I’ve never imagined could happen, and at a speed I’d never expected.”

The opinions reflected herein are solely those of the above commentator and are not necessarily those of SPEEDtv.com, FOX, NewsCorp, or Speed Channel

Tom Jensen is the Senior NASCAR Editor for SPEEDtv.com, the former Executive Editor of NASCAR Scene and a contributing Editor for TruckSeries.com. He is the author of “Cheating: The Bad Things Good NASCAR Nextel Cup Racers Do In Pursuit of SPEED,” and has appeared on television and radio shows to discuss NASCAR racing. Jensen is the President of the National Motorsports Press Association. Jensen is the 1997 National Motorsports Press Association Writer of the Year and has won numerous national and state awards for news reporting, columns and feature writing. The Answer Man is back at SPEEDtv.com. Tom Jensen answers your questions during every race week and looks forward to hearing from you - please e-mail it to


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