Dodge to unveil 2013 Sprint Cup Dodge Charger

The 2013 NASCAR Sprint Cup Dodge Charger is a good-looking car, with a body that brings back the brand identity to fans of the brand. But beauty isn't skin deep — a lot of work has gone into developing the Charger race car for next season's planned on-track debut at the Daytona 500. David Bailey, senior manager for SRT Motorsports Engineering, was in it from the beginning. "In late 2010, NASCAR called the meeting with all the manufacturers," Bailey said, and all four were unanimous in their desire to race a car that looked a lot more like their road-going counterparts. NASCAR agreed.

"They wanted a production car look. Each manufacturer had the opportunity to present individually to NASCAR. Dodge showed "Basically a production Charger sitting on top of a Cup car chassis," Bailey said. "And it just jumped out." SRT Motorsports at-track engineer Howard Comstock stressed that Dodge had no interest in a purely cosmetic treatment that fans could see through. "We didn't want to do it with just decals," he said. "We wanted a real identity, real features on the car that you see on the street car. After the design process started — and approximately 2,000 e-mails, and 600 drawings later — we've got a car that everyone knows is a Dodge Charger."

Dodge will unveil its 2013 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Dodge Charger at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. The unveiling will take place in Victory Lane Sunday morning. Ralph Gilles (President and CEO — SRT Brand and Motorsports) and Mike Helton (NASCAR President) will take part in the reveal. Dodge PR

[Editor's Note: Hapless Dodge won't have any Cup teams at the unveiling. The Penske team helped develop the new Charger but they recently announced their switch to Ford and the only other Dodge, Robby Gordon, failed to qualify fast enough to make the race. At this point Dodge is better off leaving NASCAR and switching to IndyCar where it could win races and enhance its brand. If they go after another Cup team, all the good ones are locked in with Ford or Chevy, so they will pick up some backmarker organization and continue to run at the back, looking like losers.]