It’s been one of the worst-kept secrets in the automotive industry, but Dodge has made it official — the brand will be back in the NASCAR Cup Series next year.
The idea had been percolating, and Dodge had already returned to the Craftsman truck series.
“Everyone said it was impossible to get back in one year. We said, 'watch this,'” said Tim Kuniskis, head of American Brands, SRT Performance and Direct Connection division, Stellantis North America, at the Speciality Equipment Marketing Association (SEMA) show in Las Vegas. “Sure, we could spend three years planning, testing and perfecting … or we could do all three in real time, on the track. It’s going to be exponentially harder this way. But slow has never been part of Dodge DNA. LFG.”
Dodge had its first NASCAR Cup win in 1953 and won the series championship in 2012, the last year the brand was in the Cup series.
Ram, Stellantis’s truck brand, returned to the truck series with Kaulig Racing last year, and Kaulig will now anchor both Dodge and Ram’s efforts in NASCAR next year.
Of course, SRT Racing will be the part of Dodge leading the brand’s NASCAR efforts, as it already does in other series like NHRA.
Dodge is drawing out the unveiling of the details. Kaulig Racing will announce its 2027 driver lineup this weekend during the NASCAR Cup championship race at Homestead-Miami.
That will be followed by a celebrity race in Pensacola. Dodge has plans to announce what car will wear its colors on December 4th, but a look at the production-car lineup shows it pretty much has to be a Charger body.
Tim’s Take
It’s about time Dodge got back into NASCAR, especially since the brand represents old-school, V8-performance. Hey, if Toyota, which is hybrid-focused in its production line, can be in Cup, why can’t the brand that is hanging on to the Hemi? Yes, I’d love to see Dodge catch up with the rest of the industry with regards to electrification, but that’s an issue for production cars. In NASCAR, the OEM bodies are just basically shells. Yes, the OEMs do have their own engines, but all are built to a NASCAR spec. You can’t get a V8, rear-drive Camry, right? In other words, Dodge’s involvement will be great marketing via the car’s body, and perhaps if the SRT version of a NASCAR 5.9-liter is competitive, but the Charger body I think they’ll use won’t be a direct version of the car that we can buy.
And that’s OK. Again, it’s marketing. We all know there’s no production version of the NASCAR Camry, but it doesn’t stop Toyota from exposing its products to a large audience. Dodge has left a marketing opportunity on the table for over a decade, and it’s about time the brand is back.
[Image: Dodge]
