When Dodge made its triumphant return to "stock car racing",
they did so in the then-brand new Craftsman Truck Series. Their sleek Dodge Ram helped boost the
popularity of the series among Mopar faithful who had been without Dodge in
stock car racing since it left NASCAR in the early 80s. The Ram proved to be a worthy competitor with
many race and championship wins, and the early truck series days helped to pave
the way for the current NASCAR lineup.
However, as the years have gone on, Dodge become less and
less successful with their factory backed teams as Ford and Chevy made
improvements and with the new pressure from Toyota, the number of Dodge trucks in the
series dropped dramatically. It came as
some surprise to see that when the current truck series season began, Dodge had
only one factory backed team, leaving many to wonder what the future would hold
for the Ram in the series. Turns out,
the future is dark as Dodge has announced that there would be no continued
factory support following this season.
This has to make you wonder what could be coming up for the
NASCAR entries, as they have not been terribly successful compared to the other
manufacturers in the past few seasons, but sources at Dodge insist that the
truck decision has nothing to do with plans for the cars.
