4LT GS Roadster
The return of the Dodge Challenger to the race track at Daytona International Speedway was three years in the making, according to the raw calculations of Ralph Gilles, president and CEO of the company that produces the car.
But it's actually been much longer than that between stints on the Daytona track for the Challenger, which last graced the 2.5-mile superspeedway in the 1980s in what was then known as the Busch Series as well as the Late Model Sportsman series.
"As a car maker, we are happy. For us, it's the return of Challenger," Gilles said. "We have been absent almost two decades from racing."
The return actually occurred Wednesday when five Dodge Challengers were among the 36 "new" Nationwide cars that tested Wednesday at Daytona. But it won't become official until Friday night when the Challengers -- as well as seven Ford Mustangs that will be entirely new to the series -- race against each other and all other comers in the Subway Jalapeno 250.
"We haven't had a lot of time on the track, but so far it's really cool to drive," Brad Keselowski said of the Challenger. "We ran a bunch of laps and seem to be really fast."
Keselowski's teammate at Penske Racing, Justin Allgaier, was the fastest of those behind the wheel in the new Dodges. His top lap time of 48.280 seconds, which translated to 186.413 mph, ranked 12th overall on the practice speed chart.
"Any time that you can debut a new car, especially one that is as good-looking as the Dodge Challenger, it heightens the whole idea of running well and trying to win that first race [in it]," Allgaier said. "[The Challenger] has a mean and aggressive look to it. One of the biggest complaints when the [new] Cup car came out was how big and boxy they looked. NASCAR has done a great job of going back in and trying to fix some of the things that they didn't like about the original car."
For Dodge as well as Ford, the decision to go with a new model as the Nationwide Series shifts to a new, safer chassis was not made lightly. Friday's race will be the first of four in which the Challenger is run this season, but next season it will replace the Dodge Charger in all Nationwide events. The same goes for the Ford Mustang, which will eventually replace the Ford Fusion in the series.
NASCAR.com
