For quite some time now, there have been rumors, speculations, assumptions, hopes, and even prayers of Dodge, the iconic American automotive brand, making a comeback to NASCAR. Dodge had left the sport a decade ago but ever since then, NASCAR faithful have been pinning their hopes on the brand returning to stock car racing.

And it seems the hopes and prayers have finally been answered, with a catch.

Recently, former NASCAR driver Robby Gordon made a sensational revelation. “Big news today. We’ve been talking with Dodge and it looks like we’re going to go ahead and build a Next Gen car,” Gordon said. “You know I left NASCAR scene when Dodge left the sport.”

“I’ve got the group back together, and we are going to build a Next Gen car for Watkins Glen.” 

However, before we all begin to celebrate, let’s talk about the aforementioned catch. And that could be that this news might just be an April’s Fool prank.

So yes, it could be a joke in bad taste for some, but it is what it is. Yet, that doesn’t really rule out Dodge from making a comeback, especially after what NASCAR’s President Steve Phelps said last year.

NASCAR President neither confirmed nor denied Dodge’s re-entry

In an interview towards the end of last year, Steve Phelps addressed the rumors surrounding Dodge coming back into NASCAR as an OEM.

“It’s been widely rumored that Dodge is one of those or closest. I won’t confirm or deny that. It is important. We’ve made no bones about the fact that we want to have a new OEM in our sport,” he said.

“I think we got delayed with the pandemic. With that said, we are an attractive place I believe for OEMs to come into the sport. Now is an important opportunity for them to do that because of the Next Gen car.”

Phelps said that he believes the sport is growing, that NASCAR currently has a relevance it hasn’t had in decades which is really attracting new (and old) OEMs.

“I would suggest things are progressing or I would say that things are progressing. When we have something to announce, we will,” the NASCAR President added.

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