Way back in October 1999, Dodge reentered NASCAR’s top series after 15 years in the wilderness with much fanfare. The company had slunk out of NASCAR in 1984 after years of decline — the last Dodge win had been in 1977, when Neil Bonnett beat Richard “The King” Petty at Ontario Motor Speedway — and most race fans figured that was the end of Dodge’s illustrious racing history. Time makes fools of us all, however, and by the turn of the millennium, the boys at Dodge were tanned, rested, and ready to get back to racin’.
The house that John and Horace built had recruited no less a personage than former Jeff Gordon crew chief Ray Evernham to lead the new race team. Funding would come both from Dodge and the company’s dealer network, and the effort would involve such luminaries as Roger Penske and Richard Petty. The excitement was nearly palpable, and Dodge entered the aughts with high hopes for its new racing endeavors.
Unfortunately for everyone involved, the honeymoon didn’t last very long and Dodge exited NASCAR racing again in 2012, seemingly forever.
Boogity, boogity, boogity! Let’s go racin’ boys!
Dodge’s reentry to NASCAR in 1999 started out relatively strong. The newly formed Evernham Motorsports began 2001 with drivers Bill Elliott and Casey Atwood behind the wheels of shiny new Dodge stock cars. In addition, Chip Ganassi Racing, Bill Davis Racing, Melling Racing, and Petty Enterprises threw in with Dodge. These teams started racking up wins and it looked like Dodge was reclaiming its historic racing legacy. These were good times, the salad days when big names won big races with Dodge cars. Like all good times, sadly, they wouldn’t last.
The long fall started in 2006, when Evernham driver Jeremy Mayfield just stopped winning races. What followed was a years-long decline that saw Evernham Motorsports go through numerous mergers and buyouts while other teams fled Dodge for marques like Ford, Chevrolet, and Toyota. Then, in 2008, the global economic downturn dealt Dodge’s parent company Chrysler a crippling blow which caused the company to focus on survival rather than racing. In 2012, despite some positive moves, Penske left Dodge for Ford and effectively killed off Dodge’s NASCAR racing efforts.
Despite that uninspiring end, there have been perennial rumors that Dodge will return to NASCAR racing, and even talk of Ram leading the way with an entry in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series.