Race Weekend Central

Voices from the Cheapseats: Dodge Needs to Put Up or Shut Up

If there is one thing…well actually there are many…but one of the things that just positively irks the living crap out of me is wishy-washyfulness. Maybe it’s just wishy-washyness, I dunno, but what ever you call it, I got no time for those who practice it.

Either you ARE or you ARE NOT. You’re IN or you’re OUT. She’s pregnant or she’s not…you get the idea.

Coming across this press release, I could do nothing more than shake my head and ask…WTF Dodge? Why even bother saying anything?!

Dodge hopes to return to NASCAR: The chief of Dodge Motorsports is hopeful that the manufacturer will return to NASCAR in the not too distant future. “Going forward, we’re going to take the year off, evaluate the potential,” Ralph Gilles told ESPN.com after a panel discussion on the future of motorsports at the Specialty Equipment Manufacturers Association Show. “We also did a lot of data mining. Part of the issue our management team wanted was, what are we really getting out of NASCAR? We only have two cars out of a huge field. Are we getting our money’s worth? Ironically, this year we got beyond our money’s worth. How you can replicate that? I don’t know. That’s what we’re looking at right now.” The matter of returning to the sport, whether that is in 2014 or another year in the near future, is finding an organization as strong and viable as Penske Racing. The lack of such a team left Dodge with little option but to pull out in 2013. “The Dodge brand is interested,” Gilles said of a return. “It would be hard to replace Roger [Penske], because Roger has a long-term deal with Ford. The capacity isn’t there to have that right now. It’s going to be tough, but we’ll have to look at it.” Gilles said the move toward more brand identity with the 2013 car could help expedite [Dodge’s return].(ESPN)(11-1-2012)

Now I realize that there are…or probably more accurately ‘were,’ a lot of Dodge fans out there that are still trying to come to terms with the fact that their ‘manufacturer’ is leaving the sport…once again…and have not even had time to start their grieving process in a proper fashion. What does this kind of drivel do for them? How do you think it makes them feel? Is this supposed to be some sort of glimmer of hope? Hogwash!

Without a top tier team for 2013, Dodge will leave the sport, again, for now.

Dodge has history in this sport. At one time, it was unthinkable that there would be a NASCAR race run that DIDN’T have a Dodge in it. But then that lover ran off. She was gone for many years. Suddenly, just when you are learning to get over her…or more accurately, live with the pain of ‘love lost’, she decides to come back! OK, what the heck, welcome back, sweetheart! I’ve missed you! Let’s start this love affair again!

But wait! What are you saying!? You’re not happy? You’re leaving me again!? Unfortunately the relationship has been strained too far. I will be leaving you at the end of the year, says Dodge. You’re just going to have to live with it till then and then get over me again, she says. And now this!

As with broken relationships, Dodge fans, who are now ‘once bitten twice shy,’ if they are sensible at all, will run anything ‘she’ says over and over in their minds, just as jilted lovers do.

“Part of the issue our management team wanted was, what are we really getting out of NASCAR? We only have two cars out of a huge field. Are we getting our money’s worth? Ironically, this year we got beyond our money’s worth. How you can replicate that? I don’t know. That’s what we’re looking at right now.”

I don’t know about you, but to me, that translates as…”Well crap! We didn’t think things were going to go this well so that’s why we were ‘seeing other people.’ But now…now that you kinda hit the lottery in Brad Keselowski, I’m kinda wishing I would have stayed around.”

Sorry baby! As you pointed out…I’ve got a new girl now, her name is Ford and she gives me all the support I need! And more to the point, I don’t have to worry about her leaving me every couple years, so girl, don’t go away mad…girl, just go away!

As the author of this article, I would like to note a couple of things. First off, when it comes to street cars, I’ve always preferred GM products. Not that it matters in NASCAR anyway. As I’ve said for years, the cars are all the same, just a different set of decals. I am not, nor have I ever been, partial to one manufacturer of race cars. I back the man, not the car.

Secondly, the comparison to a ‘lover’ is strictly used as a metaphor and is in no way to be interpreted as any type of ‘bitterness’ left over by any events that may, or may not, have happened in my own life!!

It all just seemed to fit and was too good to pass up!

Stay off the wall,

Jeff Meyer

“Contact Jeff Meyer”:https://frontstretch.com/contact/14350/

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