Dodge goes out on top

[440Magnum]

Congratulations to Brad Keselowski, Roger Penske, and Dodge on the 2012 NASCAR Cup series championship. BK got a championship in less time than anyone since Jeff Gordon, and Roger Penske took longer than just about anyone else! As for Dodge, the critics said it couldn't be done with only one team... guess it all depends on getting the right team and the right motivation.

Hope Dodge comes back year after next, even if the manufacturer plays a relatively small role in the sport anymore. I wish NASCAR would turn that trend around instead of making it even more of a spec series as they have in recent years.

 

[NHGUY]

Dodge got its revenge on the competition,and the teams were stupid not to take them on for 2013.Wasnt Dodge's fault alone,blame Penske for not having faith.He isnt going to win jack next year with Ford....look at how "well" Carl Edwards did this year...

 

[Toto]

I know that being the only DODGE Team had some drawbacks but switching to FORD has some short comings also.

Dale JR and Rick Hendrick abandon Brad in favor of Danica Patrick for money, both Carl Edwards and Denny Hamlin were jerks to Brad who do not deserve all the grief he got and now Brad is the Cup Champion and those other drivers have never won the Cup, hats off to Brad.

[for those who do not know Brad was supposed to drive the 5 car in Cup and was dumped for Danica and Hendrick chickened out on Danica after seeing her race in Nationwide so that is how Khane ended up in the 5 car]


Toto.

 

[440Magnum]

Originally Posted By: NHGUY
Dodge got its revenge on the competition,and the teams were stupid not to take them on for 2013.Wasnt Dodge's fault alone,blame Penske for not having faith.He isnt going to win jack next year with Ford....look at how "well" Carl Edwards did this year...


Dodge also got behind the 8-ball in the late Daimler and near-bankruptcy years. They couldn't offer competitive packages to teams like RPM, so those teams bailed out for Ford. They did right sticking to a top-tier team like Penske, but still it hurt their cause in the long run.

What really chaps me is losing Penske's engine department. They're going to go with the ubiquitous Roush-Yates Fords next year, further reducing the number of differences between Cup cars. I'd rather see Penske's engine shop continue on and build their own Ford powerplants. Right now its down to Hendrick engines, Roush-Yates, Childress, TRD, and JGR for engines. 1 Ford, 2 Chevy, and 2 'Yota. That's just sad.

 

[mikered30]

Cant Penske's engine department share ideas (fuel mileage) with Roush-Yates Fords or not? I dont think JGR makes their own engines in Cup, so that is even less engine makers. I am looking forward to the new look cars next year.

 

[VNTS]

Yes and Keslowski didnt have a single engine fail, hope he likes the blown engines when switches over to RY LOL

Originally Posted By: 440Magnum
Originally Posted By: NHGUY
Dodge got its revenge on the competition,and the teams were stupid not to take them on for 2013.Wasnt Dodge's fault alone,blame Penske for not having faith.He isnt going to win jack next year with Ford....look at how "well" Carl Edwards did this year...


Dodge also got behind the 8-ball in the late Daimler and near-bankruptcy years. They couldn't offer competitive packages to teams like RPM, so those teams bailed out for Ford. They did right sticking to a top-tier team like Penske, but still it hurt their cause in the long run.

What really chaps me is losing Penske's engine department. They're going to go with the ubiquitous Roush-Yates Fords next year, further reducing the number of differences between Cup cars. I'd rather see Penske's engine shop continue on and build their own Ford powerplants. Right now its down to Hendrick engines, Roush-Yates, Childress, TRD, and JGR for engines. 1 Ford, 2 Chevy, and 2 'Yota. That's just sad.

 

[NovaMan]

Doesn't DEI have their own engine program anymore?

 

[bdcardinal]

Originally Posted By: NovaMan
Doesn't DEI have their own engine program anymore?


It combined with Childress a few years ago, they call it ECR Engines. Ganassi Racing is switching to Hendrick Engines next season.

 

[NovaMan]

Thanks for the update.

 

[440Magnum]

Originally Posted By: mikered30
Cant Penske's engine department share ideas (fuel mileage) with Roush-Yates Fords or not? I dont think JGR makes their own engines in Cup, so that is even less engine makers. I am looking forward to the new look cars next year.


I'm sure they might share what is applicable. Fuel mappings may be pretty different because of differences in the cams, bore/stroke ratio, etc. The heads on the "Dodge" and "Chevy" NASCAR engines are sorta kinda Ford clones already, but there can be a lot of other differences that might not let the Dodge-developed fuel mappings translate easily.

That said, I think Penske is outright shuttering the engine department. A real darn shame if you ask me- back when they were running Fords with Rusty Wallace and Ryan Newman, they were putting more power to the pavement than Yates and WAY more than Roush was at the time (this is before Roush and Yates merged engine operations). They were also the ones who came out with an engine that could survive >10,000 RPM sustained and allowed Ryan Newman to drive Pocono without shifting on the front stretch one year... I still remember the big grin on Newman's face when the broadcasters noticed him not shifting and asked him about it after the race. Of course that led to the rear gear rule from NASCAR which effectively limited peak RPM. Its sort of like how Evernham Engines and Ernie Elliot engines (who built engines for Chip Ganassi's Dodges at the time) using the bigger bore capacity of the early 2000s Dodge NASCAR block to produce short-stroke engines led to the NASCAR "maximum bore size" rule. It rules like that which really hack me off at NASCAR- a team or manufacturer makes a breakthrough that gives them an edge, and then rather than forcing the other manufacturers and teams to catch up, NASCAR removes the advance and forces everyone back down.