The newly designed Dodge Charger will make its debut during Speedweeks.

By Lee Montgomery, NASCAR.COM
January 11, 2005
11:47 AM EST (16:47 GMT)

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Richard Petty's 1970s-era Dodge Charger looks pretty menacing next to Jeremy Mayfield's 2005 Charger.

Petty's car is a big, bulky beast, and in its heyday was a menacing presence on the track. Mayfield's Charger is low and sleek, conforming to NASCAR's "common template" philosophy.

But Dodge officials hope the new Charger will have a menacing presence on the track these days. The new car is the second from Dodge since the manufacturer returned to the sport four years ago, replacing the Interpid.

"We never called it a Dodge," Petty said of the original car. "We called it a Charger. The Charger sounds like racing to me. Hopefully some of the Charger tradition will rub off on the team."

The 2005 Charger was unveiled Tuesday morning before NASCAR Preseason Thunder Testing at Daytona International Speedway. Four teams and 10 drivers will use the Charger in the season-opening Daytona 500 next month.

"I think we're trying to verify everything we did with it in our development sessions in the off-season with all the wind tunnel work," Dodge Motorsports operations director John Fernandez said. "Obviously when you're in the wind tunnel it's not the same as being on the track. At places like Daytona and Talladega you need to get the car in the draft and make sure it works well in the draft. Those things are difficult to do in the wind tunnel.

"Everything we've done in testing so far suggests we've got a car that's as good as the car we had last year. NASCAR has done some work to slow the car down a little bit with reducing the spoiler in the rear and for the restrictor-plate races taking a 64th out of the hole.

"We're looking forward to this year. I think we're going to win a lot of races this year. The Charger name has charisma. It takes you back to the early days of NASCAR, and we're excited about it. Being in a Dodge Charger is a little bit different than being in a Dodge Intrepid."

Dodge Motorsports' engineering department did most of the development of the car, with help from its four factory teams: Evernham Motorsports, Petty Enterprises, Chip Ganassi Racing and Penske Racing. Bill Elliott did most of the on-track testing.

NASCAR approved the car in August.

"We feel like we've got a great team, and this new Dodge Charger is going to be a great addition to our team and we're proud to be a part of it," Mayfield said. "We won't know a lot about the car until we run a few races, obviously, but we know there's going to be a little bit of a learning curve. The trick is going to be how fast we can adapt to all the changes.

"I think it's going to be a good car. It looks good. It looks racy. It's going to be cool. You've got a lot of history behind the name Charger, and that's really the neat part. Daytona is always different for testing, but when we get through with the tests at Las Vegas and California we'll know more about it. We've got a smaller restrictor plate and a different car and we've got a lot of new things going on at Daytona, but I still think we'll be OK."

NASCAR.com

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