Motorsport.com is reporting that Fiat-Chrysler boss Sergio Marchionne has publicly said that the company is considering a return to NASCAR racing. It was Marchionne who removed the company from the racing series after they won the championship in 2012. In the Motorsports.com story linked below, the Chrysler head says that it was not the right place for the company to be during that time as they had emerged from bankruptcy in 2009 and he was still working to get things sorted out, make the payroll, and put the company on some kind of sure footing.
Marchionne believes that the company is in a “different place” now that NASCAR racing may be a place for them to be. He confirmed talks with Jim France of NASCAR about his interest in the series and he also called himself the “guilty party at the table” as he was the guy who pulled the plug on the program in 2012.
If Dodge were to return to the series it would be a huge story. NASCAR has not exactly been surrounded by positive news lately and this would be a massive shot in the arm for the world pro level stock car racing. It would also be a HUGE check for Dodge to write to get back into the sport. The program would have to be completely rebuilt in every possible way so both the workload and the amount of cash needed would be tremendous.
Dodge has all but vacated professional drag racing aside from supporting the funny car class through Don Schumacher Racing. They have stepped away from NHRA pro stock racing after releasing Jeg Coughlin Jr. and Erica Enders-Stevens from their contracts after a disappointing year in 2016. Like Ford, Dodge sees more value in supporting sportsman racing efforts across a larger canvas than concentrating on just professional level stuff.
That being said, the amount of money that was being invested in drag racing is a literal drop in the bucket compared to what this potential NASCAR effort would command.
Click here to see the Motorsport.com story about Dodge and NASCAR
Sergio…print up some nose and tailpiece decals, borrow some of Jessel’s motors 🙂 , slap on a Holly EFI and your back in business.
Rumor has it Buddy Arrington will be running the teams
MEH. I’m a Mopar fan, and haven’t followed NASCAR for a couple years. This news won’t change anything. NASCAR should change it’s name to NASCRAP.
The amount of time it takes to submit a request, and submit all the drawings and plans, etc, the time frame is about two (2) years. A sound bite has turned into a story and I think Mr. Fiat has better things to do.
Between the Charger , Challenger sales not to point at the most popular pickup an it’s not an F model
I would’ve thought we would’ve seen them 5 yrs ago. Won’t hold my breath
You can almost hear all the celebratory beer cans popping across the trailer parks of the south…
Any businesses putting money into racing is a good thing, expecially if it is an auto manufacturer.
Nascar success can only help NHRA in bringing in more sponsors like It did in the 90s to the crash.
I would rather see dodge put money into the Sportsman ranks than pro stock.
it wouldn’t be too hard to catch up. Just do what Toyota did when they first started. Let Chevy do all the R&D work for 60 years, then take a set of their heads, scrape the GM part numbers off and put your own new ones on and viola. Back in business.
Almost all the other pieces of those cars are cookie cutter ones anyway so it shouldn’t take long.
I’m with SWPMFAN, I’d much rather see them invest their money into drag racing and especially the sportsman side.
I’d like to believe it, but old Serg has enough problems trying to get Ferrari on the podium in F1.
Unemployment in Europe is high, car sales not doing so good. I just can’t see it.
But, I still have hope.