DETROIT, Oct 11 (Reuters) - DaimlerChrysler AG will
announce this week that its Dodge brand is returning to the
stock-car racing scene, ending a 14-year absence from an
increasingly popular sport, industry sources familiar with the
automaker's plans said on Monday.
The German-U.S. company, which has been placing greater
emphasis on professional racing, will announce its return to
NASCAR's Winston Cup circuit, sources said. DaimlerChrysler is
likely to begin racing in 2000 or 2001, returning to a sport
made popular by drivers such as Jeff Gordon and Dale Earnhardt.
The world's No. 5 automaker, which also will return to
Formula One racing next year after the purchase of a 40 percent
equity in TAG McLaren Group earlier this year, has not confirmed
the plans. NASCAR declined to comment.
Stock-car racing features full-bodied American-made sedans
turned race cars, rather than the open-wheel, single-seat cars
used in Indy and Formula One racing.
The automaker has scheduled press conferences in New York
and at Talladega Superspeedway in Alabama on Thursday and
Friday, respectively, to make a major Dodge Motorsports
announcement.
"I can't confirm speculation on whether or not it would
involve NASCAR," DaimlerChrysler spokesman David Elshoff said.
Dodge, whose drivers have included Lee and Richard Petty
and Lee Roy Yarbrough, last participated in a Winston Cup race
in June 1985 after 35 years on the circuit. The former Chrysler
Corp., which merged with Germany's Daimler-Benz AG last year,
also raced cars under its Plymouth and Chrysler brands,
Dodge still ranks as the fourth most successful brand in
Winston Cup history with 160 wins, trailing Ford, Chevrolet and
Plymouth, Racer Magazine editor John Zimmermann said. Dodge's
return to Winston Cup is most likely in 2001 as next year's
racing season is less than five months away.
DaimlerChrysler has eyed a return to Winston Cup for years,
because of the sport's growing base of highly loyal fans,
Elshoff said. The automaker's Dodge Ram full-sized pickup truck
has participated in NASCAR's Craftsman series since its
inception five years ago.
"The anecdotal stories and statistical figures support that
NASCAR-Winston Cup sponsors benefit from that involvement," he
said, pointing out Dodge's truck racing has raised consumer
awareness of its trucks and boosted company morale.
The Dodge Intrepid, whose sales rose 13 percent through
September versus last year, is the car most likely to race in
Winston Cup, the sources said. General Motors Corp. competes
with Chevrolet Monte Carlo and Pontiac Grand Prix, while Ford
Motor Co. races the Taurus.
NASCAR Winston Cup racing is such an attractive opportunity
for DaimlerChrysler because of a growing base of fans, who love
the sport's down-to-earth drivers and have pushed television
ratings sky-high, especially in the last 10 to 15 years, said
Bill Doyle, vice president of Performance Research, a sports
marketing-research firm in Newport, R.I.
"NASCAR is the fastest-growing sport in the country so to
ignore it would be ignoring such a huge slice of the population
right now that it would be ridiculous," he said.
In fact, NASCAR's fan loyalty rate in the United States is
almost double that of fans of pro football, baseball and
basketball, the firm said. In 1995, Sports Illustrated
magazine's cover story on NASCAR made that issue the
second-highest seller that year behind the swimsuit edition.
"It certainly is a nationwide if not burgeoning worldwide
phenomena," Racer Magazine's Zimmermann said.
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