Results tagged “Dodge” from Haddock in the Paddock

The Daytona 500 was supposed to be a continuation of the Hendrick Motorsports dominance. It was supposed to be the coming out party for Toyota.
What it turned out to be was the return of the Dodge.
Roger Penske can finally add a Daytona 500 win to all his Indianapolis 500 wins. Ryan Newman can put his Daytona 500 win total up against Sam Hornish's Indy 500 win total now too.
After the race, Newman gave all the credit to his Penske Racing teammate, Kurt Busch, for giving him a much-needed push to win the race.
"Without a doubt, he could have easily gone three-wide and split us through the center and made one heck of a mess there going into three, but he chose to be a teammate," said Newman, driver of the No. 12 Dodge for Penske Racing. "That's the most honorable thing that he could do. I would have done the same thing to him. Just thank him a bunch. Thank our Penske/Jasper engine group for the great horsepower."
All the talk leading up to the Daytona 500 was about how great the Hendrick cars still were and how much better the team was going to be with Dale Earnhardt Jr. Junior had a chance to win the race, but dropped back on the last lap and finished ninth.
His Hendrick teammates all crashed or had mechanical problems. Jeff Gordon was the first to go with a suspension failure. Jimmie Johnson was next when he spun out. Casey Mears ran up the track and hit the wall with less than 10 laps to go. That left Earnhardt Jr. alone and without a teammate as the race came to an end.
As for Toyota, the Joe Gibbs Racing teammates of Tony Stewart and Kyle Busch made a late surge, but the best they could do was third place.
This was a race for Dodge. Newman and Busch finished 1-2. Then came Stewart and Kyle Busch, followed by four more Dodges.
Reed Sorenson, Elliott Sadler, Kasey Kahne and Robby Gordon gave Dodge six of the top-eight spots at Daytona. Add Bobby Labonte's 11th place and Dodge had seven of the top 11 spots.
“We got a different situation with this car at this racetrack," Newman said about seeing six Dodges finish in the top eight. "I think that's part of it. I think our Penske/Jasper engine did a great job. That made up for two of the six. That's a lot in itself. Just when you're trying to run wide open, the horsepower underneath the hood makes a big difference when the cars are similar. Outside of that, it's probably a part just racing.”

For an engine manufacturer that only had one car in last year's Chase, Dodge set some lofty goals during the NASCAR media tour on Tuesday.
Mike Accavitti, director -- Dodge Brand and SRT Global Marketing, said he expects Dodge teams to win races, qualify for the Chase and contend for the championship.
“We remain firmly committed to those objectives,” Accavitti said. “We’ve taken strides toward those goals. Our progress slowed somewhat in 2007, but we’re confident we have a very talented group of teams capable of producing wins, top fives and top 10s. We expect Dodge to be well represented in the Chase in 2008 and be a serious contender for the championship.”
That would be some kind of turnaround.
Kurt Busch was the only Dodge driver to qualify for the Chase last year. And he needed to rally just before the Chase started to climb into Chase contention.
Busch is back with Penske Racing, which will have three cars in the Sprint Cup Series. Dodge will have five teams and 12 cars at the Cup level. Gillett Evernham Motorsports, Chip Ganassi Racing, Petty Enterprises and BAM Racing are the other four Dodge teams.
After Everhman Motorsports driver Kasey Kahne led all Cup drivers with six wins in 2006, Dodge fell off dramaitically. No driver from the newly formed Gillett Evernham Motorsports team won a race last year. The Dodge teams experimented with setups and switched from using Charger and Avenger bodies.
Accavitti said he would like to see all the Dodge teams stick with the Charger.
“Dodge has a racing heritage that spans many different nameplates and models, and the Charger is the cornerstone of that heritage,” Accavitti said. “When NASCAR originally announced the phase-in plan for the Car of Tomorrow, it made sense for Dodge to race the Charger and Avenger. When the decision was made to race only one car in 2008, we talked with our partners, the more than 2,500 Dodge Dealers across the country, and they expressed overwhelming support for Dodge to continue its motorsports heritage with the Charger nameplate. NASCAR rules permit Dodge to use either nameplate in 2008.”
It would seem Dodge has a ways to go to get back in Chase and championship contention. Then again, qualifying more than one Dodge driver in the Chase would be viewed by some as a tremendous success.

A winless season is something new;
For Ray Evernham, an unexpected plot.
His drivers considered among the best;
His cars apparently were not.
Kasey Kahne could not break through,
A second place at Bristol, the best that he could do.
Elliott Sadler fared far worse,
His top-10 finishes from season’s past added up to two.
In steps George Gillett, his pockets deep, a welcome sight;
Enter Patrick Carpentier, a Canadian with a future bold and bright.
Budweiser’s in, Best Buy too. Enough new money for all;
But the Christmas wish at the top of their list is a Dodge engine that does not stall.