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LAS VEGAS \u2014<\/p>\nLAS VEGAS \u2014<\/p>\n
Dodge is returning to the NASCAR Cup Series in 2027, a year earlier than initially expected.<\/p>\n
The Stellantis-owned Dodge brand announced its return at the Specialty Equipment Market Association Show in Las Vegas on Monday.<\/p>\n
Video above: Tyler Reddick chats about his historic NASCAR season<\/p>\n
Dodge will once again give the Cup Series four manufacturers, joining Chevrolet, Ford and Toyota in fielding entries to compete in a 36-race schedule that begins in mid-February and crowns a champion in early November.<\/p>\n
Kaulig Racing will use the Dodge Charger to field a two-car team, likely beginning with the exhibition Clash at Daytona International Speedway on Feb. 13. A more telling debut will come in the Daytona 500 eight days later.<\/p>\n
AJ Allmendinger and Ty Dillon are expected to fill those Kaulig seats, although a formal driver announcement is planned for NASCAR’s championship weekend in Homestead, Florida.<\/p>\n
\u201cEveryone said it was impossible to get back in one year. We said, \u2018Watch this,\u2019\u201d said Tim Kuniskis, head of American Brands at Stellantis North America. \u201cSure, we could spend three years planning, testing and perfecting \u2026 or we could do all three in real time, on the track. It\u2019s going to be exponentially harder this way. But slow has never been part of Dodge DNA.”<\/p>\n
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Chuck Burton<\/p>\n
FILE – Crew members push the Dodge Charger of driver Brad Keselowski down pit road during qualifying for the NASCAR Coca-Cola 600 Sprint Cup Series auto race.<\/p>\n
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Dodge raced in NASCAR through the 2012 season and left the same month it celebrated the Cup title with Brad Keselowski and Penske Racing. It was Dodge\u2019s first Cup championship since Richard Petty\u2019s sixth of seven titles in 1975.<\/p>\n
\u201cDodge\u2019s return to the NASCAR Cup Series is a significant milestone for the sport,\u201d NASCAR CEO Steve O\u2019Donnell said in a statement. \u201cThis commitment speaks to Dodge\u2019s belief in our sport and gives fans another reason to be excited about what\u2019s ahead.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe partnership between NASCAR, Kuniskis and the entire team at Stellantis has been nothing short of phenomenal. They have a deep passion for NASCAR and its ability to showcase the world\u2019s top brands, and we can\u2019t wait to see Dodge on the racetrack for the Daytona 500 and beyond.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dodge re-entered the NASCAR Truck Series with its Ram brand in 2026, with eyes on expanding to the premier Cup Series in 2028. Kuniskis vowed to be disruptive while doing it \u201cunlike anyone else.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kuniskis said Ram planned to tap into NASCAR\u2019s estimated fan base of 20 million \u201cand turn it into 80 or 100 million.\u201d Kaulig had five trucks race this season, all of which are outside the top 10 in the series standings heading to Homestead.<\/p>\n
Normally, it would have taken Dodge years to get ready for the Cup Series. But Dodge reportedly bypassed part of the timeline required to develop a new engine by partnering with Earnhardt Childress Racing to build Dodge-spec powerplants alongside its regular Chevrolet operations.<\/p>\n
The Athletic reported that Chevrolet, Ford and Toyota allowed that unique partnership in part because they believed a fourth manufacturer in NASCAR would be good for the overall health of the racing series.<\/p>\n
John Probst, president of NASCAR Event Management, said the sanctioning body continues to search for additional manufacturers and noted that an appealing entry point could coincide with a new engine platform planned between 2030 and 2032.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe North American car market is probably one of a handful in the world that there\u2019s money to be made on car sales,” Probst said. \u201cAnd I think that when you\u2019re trying to sell cars and trucks and using motorsports as a platform to talk to your fans and your customers, there\u2019s no better place to be than in NASCAR.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LAS VEGAS \u2014 Dodge is returning to the NASCAR Cup Series in 2027, a year earlier than initially…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":958960,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[446],"tags":[49,48,19546,34204,210629,634,82],"class_list":["post-958959","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nascar","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-daytona-500","tag-dodge","tag-mpnd","tag-nascar","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/958959","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=958959"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/958959\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/958960"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=958959"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=958959"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=958959"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}