Dodge: Business deals won't affect race teams
I was listening to Ray on Sirius Speedway this week & he said he was in Detroit on Tuesday with "2 or 3 Dodge drivers" making me wonder if Elliott or Kasey were one of them. Yup! Both of them! :)
Dodge: Business deals won't affect race teams
9, 19 cars may have different look for next season
By Dave Rodman, NASCAR.COM
August 4, 2007
06:14 PM EDT
LONG POND, Pa. -- Mike Delahanty, senior manager of the Dodge Motorsports program, confirmed on Saturday at Pocono Raceway the manufacturer's long-term intent to remain in the series and an extension of Petty Enterprises' deal with Dodge. He also said its flagship Evernham Motorsports cars might have a different look next season.
Cerberus Capital Management, an investment group, this week finalized its agreement to split the Chrysler brands away from DaimlerChrysler, but Delahanty said Dodge's motorsports involvement would not be affected, with the plan for four teams to run 10 cars next season.
He said there was no conflict with the motorsports program's goals and the philosophy of an investment group running an auto manufacturer.
"What we invest is huge dollars, but in the magnitude of the total business, it's not that great," Delahanty said. "We've got very passionate fans that love racing. These are our customers at NASCAR races. Going forward, Cerberus isn't going to get very deeply involved in the day-to-day operations of what we do. But they've been involved in a due diligence process on the relationship of the two companies since the beginning of the year.
"During that time we had two very big long-term contracts that went through our system, and they went through the Cerberus review unscathed -- no questions. We had a long-term commitment to the sport that was approved and a long-term commitment to one of our key teams that was approved. That gave us a message very early that going forward we weren't going to have to worry how to run our business."
Delahanty said the team was the Pettys'.
"We'd had an on-and-off relationship with the Pettys for a number of years, and we realized that the whole Petty organization, and Richard Petty, is Dodge and Chrysler," Delahanty said. "He's the greatest icon in the sport and we wanted to make sure that we maintained a relationship with him."
Delahanty declined to go into the details of rumors that connect Ray Evernham's team to possible deals with commercial sponsors such as Budweiser or a Masterfoods brand such as Snickers -- but said the No. 9 and 19 Dodges, which have carried Dodge Dealers and UAW sponsorship since the newest program began in 2001, might look different next season.
"When we got back into the sport in 2001, it was in a partnership with our dealers -- they wanted to get back in, so it's a joint investment," Delahanty said. "But remember, we only had a couple cars on the track at that time. But now we've got 10 cars and we've been talking with Ray and our dealers for quite some time saying, 'How should we invest our money in the sport, as a primary sponsorship on two cars, or in some other way?'
"At the same time, Ray's had some great opportunities come forward -- potentially great partners in a business-to-business situation. So we're sitting back and looking at that with our Dodge dealer partners to see what can come to the table."
Delahanty said Evernham and drivers Kasey Kahne and Elliott Sadler, along with Petty's competition director Robbie Loomis, all went to a meeting with Dodge officials last Tuesday in Detroit.
"Let me put it in context," Delahanty said. "Tom LaSorda, Chrysler's CEO's primary focus was getting the deal done, but he took a couple hours out of his schedule to sit down and talk very candidly what our expectations, and our plans and goals are.
"It was a good meeting. Ray's got some good plans going forward, we've got a great history with him that will continue and Tom made it very clear to everyone in the room, including those of us running the program that we're in it to win."