Dodge Is Returning to NASCAR Touting Gasoline-Powered Performance Is Back

Dodge is going racing. Whether the win on Sunday and sell on Monday marketing plan will work out is yet to be seen, but the Brotherhood of Muscle is all about gasoline again, apparently.

On Monday in Las Vegas as the SEMA show kicks off, Dodge announced its return to NASCAR Cup Series racing. The message for fans of the brand is said to be this, “Gasoline-powered performance is back at the center of the brand, and Dodge is heading back to NASCAR Cup Series racing,” Dodge said.

“Everyone said it was impossible to get back in one year. We said, ‘watch this,’” said Head of American Brands for Stellantis Tim Kuniskis. “Sure, we could spend three years planning, testing and perfecting … or we could do all three in real time, on the track. It’s going to be exponentially harder this way. But slow has never been part of Dodge DNA. LFG.”

Dodge will use the NASCAR Championship Weekend at Homestead-Miami Speedway Nov. 6-8 to have its factory-backed team, which is partnered with Kaulig Racing, to announce the 2027 season driver lineup. On Dec. 4, at the 59th annual Snowball Derby at Five Flags Speedway in Pensacola, Florida, Dodge will reveal its new stock car.

Dodge is following in Ram’s footsteps, as the truck brand announced its return to NASCAR in June. At the time, Kuniskis, the man that resurrected SRT, teased Dodge’s return to NASCAR stating, “We have cars in our company.” And he obviously didn’t mean Chrysler, which currently sells only the Pacifica minivan.

That message, and return to NASCAR, comes days after reports of the Dodge Charger EV being the worst lease deal on the planet, perhaps and likely on purpose. Dodge seemingly has no interest in selling its electric muscle car. The electric 2027 Charger Daytona also received a five-figure price increase despite tepid demand.

To date, Dodge has seemingly been doing everything it can to make people like the new Charger, except give it a V8. But a V8 wasn’t in the original plans for the new Charger, and things take time. I saw a Hellcat-powered V8 Dodge Charger SRT with a huge wing straight out of the Superbird era. It’s likely locked for the 2028 model year.

Everything we are seeing happen is part of Stellantis’ huge turnaround plan that calls for 60 new vehicles and 50 refreshes by 2030. That includes the V8-powered Charger. But before the Hemi returns to the Charger comes the rise of the Super Bee, but it has a highly boosted inline-six this time around.

In April, Dodge CEO Matt McAlear told The Drive it’s too soon to judge the Charger’s sales figures. “I’m still excited. I’m still bullish on this car,” he told The Drive in an interview. “I think it offers something that no one sees coming in the industry and it wakes up some mundane car segments that there’s not many of them left.”

The faithful are angry, and we said the reboot of the icon is off to a poor start. McAlear acknowledged the troubled launch to The Drive in April and said, “And believe me,” he added, “you don’t get anything right the first time.” Acknowledging the issue is step one.

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