While the large indoor Mopar display at the 2012 SEMA Show in Las Vegas had an obvious bias towards small cars, there were a few Ram Brand pickups on hand as well with the most intriguing being the dark gun metal gray Ram R/T shown in the image above.  The catch is that this sinister Ram 1500 R/T is powered by the same 392 cubic inch Hemi that is found in the current Dodge Challenger along with the SRT brake rotors and calipers borrowed from the Grand Cherokee SRT8 - leading us to wonder if this is our first look at the Ram 1500 SRT8.

When we got our first teaser of this dark truck with a Mopar Blue driver's stripe, the first thought was that we were getting  a preview of the next Mopar branded vehicle considering that this Ram 1500 features a similar exterior design to the Mopar 10 Challenger, the Mopar 11 Charger and the Mopar 12 Chrysler 300.

Once I saw it in person, I saw that this sporty full size truck was actually a dark metallic grey and it was not black like the Mopar branded vehicles.  As soon as the hood opened, the consideration of this being a preview of the Mopar 13 shifted to this truck being our first look at the Ram 1500 SRT8 with the SEMA Show image vehicle named the Urban Ram.

The folks at Chrysler have once again put together a fun new TV commercial for the 2013 Dodge Dart with the pulse pumping background music from Kanye West/Jay-Z's "Watch the throne".  Following in the tradition of the Dart ads with titles like How to Change Cars Forever and How to Make the Most Hi-Tech Car, this newest spot featuring rally racer Travis Pastrana is named "How to Test Your Car for Fun".

This video explains that you test your car for fun by first start with an all new award winning car (which happens to be a white 2013 Dodge Dart Rallye) followed by finding the most hardcore driver in America (who happens to be one Mr. Travis Pastrana).  Pastrana is introduced between a pair of top fuel dragsters doing massive smokey burnouts which is ironic, considering that drag racing is the one form of racing that Pastrana has not tackled professionally.

There was only one new Dodge Charger sedan in the massive indoor Mopar display at the 2012 SEMA Show but the Mopar-modified "Dodge Charger Juiced" made for a fine representation of the high performance sport sedan.

The Dodge Charger Juiced begins on the outside, where Mopar has added a front chin spoiler (PN 82212340), a body colored crosshair grille (PN 82212421), a Mopar grille graphic (PN 82212923), a Mopar decklid graphic (PN 82212483), prototype smoked headlight lenses, a prototype performance hood and some great looking 20" Mopar wheels finished in a satin black finish with copperhead orange wheels.  The folks at Mopar sounded pretty positive that these wheels would eventually be available in the performance catalog and when they do arrive...I'm betting that they will be popular.

Among the large indoor Mopar display at the 2012 SEMA Show in Las Vegas was the awesome Lil Red Express Truck Concept - wearing a vintage sport truck look but packing a far more powerful engine than the Little Red Express of the late 1970s.  Granted, the aftermarket turbo package is an unfortunately clear message that this Mopar concept isn't headed for production any time soon but that doesn't make this old school themed sport truck any less cool.

The ultimate goal of the Little Red Express Truck by Mopar is to feature some items currently offered for the Ram 1500 lineup beginning including the Sport Performance Hood (PN 82211065AF), some bright brushed 22" aluminum wheels with gold inserts and a unique Katzkin leather seats.  This new Lil Red Express Concept also sports the wooden inlay bed surface, wooden bedside rails, Hyperblack grille inserts, a set of concept smoke stacks and the gold decals that have their own unique look compared to the old trucks while still obviously drawing the inspiration from the Lil Red Express of 1978 and 1979. 

Brad Keselowski and his #2 Miller Lite Dodge Charger stock car sit in the top spot in the 2012 Chase for the Cup - 20 points ahead of second place Jimmie Johnson and in a very good position to give Dodge-faithful NASCAR fans their first championship since in 37 years.  Not since Richard 'The King' Petty took the 1975 NASCAR title in his #43 Dodge Charger has a Chrysler Group product claimed the championship and we have to go back to 2004 to find a year when a Chevrolet driver failed to claim NASCAR's biggest trophy.

Brad Keselowski came into Sunday's AdvoCare 500 in Phoenix trailing Jimmie Johnson by just 7 points with two races left.  Keselowski managed to avoid "the big one" this past weekend as the cars took the white flag and he finished in the 6^th spot.  Luckily for Keselowski and Penske Racing, Jimmie Johnson finishing a painful 32^nd after blowing a tire and hitting the wall earlier in the race.  The result of these two factors placed Brad Keselowski 20 points ahead of Johnson and the #48 team.