Petty on why Dodge teams cannot win

It has been 55 years since Lee Petty drove a Dodge Diplomat to victory in NASCAR's premier series at a race in West Palm Beach, Fla. That was the first victory at what now is the Sprint Cup Series level for the manufacturer, and it fittingly came with a Petty behind the wheel.

With Petty Enterprises in the news this week, and apparently very close to ceasing to exist as NASCAR has known it, there is no diplomatic way to say it: Dodge has become an also-ran when it comes to stacking up against the other three manufacturers who compete at the Cup level.

"I think you look at who has been successful [in recent years], and Roush has seven or eight cars he's working with; Hendrick has six or seven that he's been working with; even Gibbs has had some other deals they've been working with," Richard Petty said of the alliances Roush Fenway has with Yates Racing, Hendrick has had with what soon will operate as Stewart-Haas Racing, and Gibbs has enjoyed with other Toyota-backed teams.

"It's hard to compete with that. You look at the Dodge teams, and you've got four teams that have been totally independent. We've not thrown our stuff into the middle of the pot, like the other teams have done, and tried to work through things together.

Hopefully, we can do that next year." nascar.com