Dodge will stay in NASCAR with minimal effort

Woe to the poor teams who stuck with Dodge. Dodge has confirmed that it will continue to support teams racing in NASCAR sanctioned stock car races in 2009 despite the dismal state of the automotive industry. “We’re not going to pull out," Mike Accavitti, Dodge’s head of motorsports, told Reuters. “We are going to throttle back (30% or more). NASCAR is not exempt from anything else that we do to market and promote vehicles.

“We have to reduce our spending," he added. “We have to get our expenses in line with our revenues. The market right now for automobiles is at a low point that hasn’t been seen in decades. As we resize the company and resize our expenses, our NASCAR spend is not exempt."

Chevy has already announced that it will cut its motor sports spending (eliminating NASCAR track sponsorships), and Ford will stop commitments next year to the lower-tier Camping World Truck and Nationwide series.

Toyota has already said that while their budget is still under review, they have no immediate plans to significantly reduce their spending in NASCAR for 2009.

Dodge teams were already backmarkers. With 30%+ reduction in their effort…..woe to the hapless Dodge teams that remain. Of course NASCAR does need field fillers. Chip Ganassi saw the light and got out while he could.