NASCAR News: Dodge’s Return Gets Hopeful New Update

Dodge is looking to re-enter NASCAR, and an insider has shed new light on what the company’s return to the sport could look like.

Dodge officially left NASCAR after the 2012 season after decades of rich racing history. A handful of holdout teams were still running Dodge cars until as recently as the 2018 season. However, the company itself hasn’t officially been a part of the sport for over a decade. That said, the recent announcement of the return of RAM to the NASCAR Truck Series and chatter about Dodge’s return to the sport as a whole has a lot of Mopar fans excited.

Now, there’s even more information on Dodge’s return. On3 recently reported that The Athletic’s Jordan Bianchi shed some light on the return of Dodge from the insider perspective at Dodge. Until now, we havent’ really had a clear answer on how Dodge would go about forming or joining a team and what its return will look like. Now, though, we get a bit of a clearer view.

Dodge Will Most Likely Join an Existing Team

Rather than dealing with the headaches of a new brand entering a sport (or re-entering, in this case) and building a team from scratch, it seems that Dodge is more likely to join forces with an already-operational team.

“Dodge has had conversations with several parties representing teams, both existing and prospective, including at least one current Cup organization. The consensus within the garage is that Dodge would be best served by aligning with an already operational team that knows the ins and outs of NASCAR, helping to mitigate the typical issues that inevitably arise when a new manufacturer comes in. Expect substantial movement on this soon,” wrote Bianchi.

When Will Dodge Be Back in NASCAR?

It’s hard to say exactly when we might see Dodge cars on the oval again. For perspective, the re-introduction of RAM to the truck series was just announced in June of 2025. However, the return was in the making for quite some time before that. On3 reports that NASCAR Executive Vice President John Probst said RAM’s return truly started taking form in the third quarter of 2024. So, considering the official RAM announcement took nearly two full years from getting the ball rolling, we could be in for a bit of a wait, here. Let’s also keep in mind that we’ve been hearing rjmors about Dodge’s return for nearly a decade.

One thing is for sure, we’ll be keeping our eyes peeled for news on this. We can’t wait to see Dodge make its way back into NASCAR!

Photos: Stellantis 

Braden Carlson

Braden Carlson is an automotive enthusiast from Boise, Idaho. At 19 he quit his day job to pursue a career in automotive journalism, launching his Youtube channel in his own name. Today you can still find him producing DIY video content, reviews and writing for an amassment of automotive websites. His work is most frequently found on Rennlist, The Mustang Source and Corvette Forum. When not writing or driving, he's likely to be found covered in grease and oil undoubtedly from one of his gratuitous collection of questionable project cars.