Written by:
Jimmy Spencer
01/29/2009
Harrisburg, NC
Now that only two NASCAR Sprint Cup Series teams field a total of seven fulltime Dodges, it’s time to come together.
Penske Racing and Richard Petty Motorsports need to merge their engine operations to better position themselves to compete against the other three manufacturers. Not only are the Dodge teams outnumbered in total cars, the Dodge camp is outrun on the track most weeks and it’s time to do something about it. George Gillett, Richard Petty and Roger Penske will be forced to unite on the engine front to improve their operations.
The manufacturer failed to place a car in The Chase last year for the first time since The Chase was introduced in 2004 and struggled mightily. Kurt Busch, a Penske driver, advocated for a unification of the Dodge engine operations during last week’s Lowe’s Motor Speedway Media Tour and I have to agree with him.
Bob Nardelli, the CEO of Chrysler, told me his goal is to have his teams about 85-percent equal to each other, allowing the remaining 15-percent to be reliant upon pit crew, personnel, chassis setup and things of that nature. Nardelli realizes that for his teams to succeed, they must share information. If Dodge merges its engine shops, the car maker would have so much more R&D information to pull from and could be on par with the other manufacturers in horsepower and reliability.
The perfect example of a strong engine alliance was set by Jack Roush and Robert and Doug Yates, who combined their motor shops in 2004 and have enjoyed a highly successful outcome. The Yateses are renowned for their horsepower and as a result, the Ford motors continue to be the best engines every week. If a Ford team needs to lease a motor, you can bet they’ll get it from Roush Yates Engines.
Toyota has a similar setup in that Toyota Cup teams obtain their powerplants from TRD. The only exception is Joe Gibbs Racing, which basically builds their own.
