It was recently reported that Dodge has completely pulled the plug on their NASCAR re-entry, much to most of the fans’ disappointment. However, if Dale Earnhardt Jr is to be believed, all hope shouldn’t be lost just yet.
In a recent episode of the Dale Jr. Download, the NASCAR Hall of Famer opened up on the story of Dodge closing the door on NASCAR.
“With the Dodge deal, so I believe that there are a lot of people in Dodge that want to be in NASCAR and it’s basically a couple of key individuals that are yet to be convinced that it’s a good move or something they need to do now,” he said. “So while Dodge is not coming right now, I don’t think the door shut on that.”
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Having said that, Earnhardt Jr. claimed that the speculated reason for Dodge changing their minds because of the low horsepower aspect in the current era of the sport cannot be all that true.
“I think that the message point about why they didn’t come, focusing on NHRA, it’s just filler,” he described.
“I don’t think that they intended it to be a read between the lines about horsepower, it definitely plays really well into that messaging and it opens it up for fans to go, ‘What the hell NASCAR? We thought this was going to be absolutely what would bring them in.’”
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Dale Earnhardt Jr. feels new challenges await Brad Keselowski’s RFK Racing
The former Hendrick Motorsports driver revealed how Dodge, for the time being, not entering the sport is going to hurt Brad Keselowski, his team, and one other Cup team the most of all the current and future stakeholders in this context.
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“I think this affects RFK and Front Row because I think both of those were probably likely gonna go to the Dodge deal,” he said.
Dale Jr. argued that because of this, “new challenges” will await RFK Racing and FRM simply because they must’ve been planning and preparing for Dodge, but now with the situation being what it is, it’s going to create “new hurdles” for them.
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“Not that it’s any kind of a setback if this is not gonna be what they hoped it would be in terms of being able to usher in a new manufacture,” he added.