This weekend at the Daytona International Speedway, the Dodge Challenger will return to the NASCAR track for the first time in almost 30 years. When the Subway Jalapeno 250 roars to life on Friday night, Penske Racing’s Brad Keselowski and Justin Allgaier will be tearing it up behind the wheel of two Challengers. This will be the first of only four races the Challengers will run during the 2010 NASCAR Nationwide Series season, making this debut race all the more important. “Our new Dodge Challenger race car brings true brand identity back to NASCAR, so now the spotlight is going to be shared between the new car and our two star drivers from Penske Racing,” said Ralph Gilles, Dodge President and CEO. “We’ve been looking forward to this race weekend for quite some time, and our loyal owners and fans are going to have a lot of opportunities to celebrate the return of the Dodge Challenger.”
The excitement on the track will kick off at 1:05 pm on Friday with the official qualifying round, but the real action starts tonight! NYC-based rockers Atomic Tom will be performing at Daytona Dodge Chrysler Jeep, playing hits from their upcoming single “We Were Never Meant To Be.” Amongst the enthusiastic audience members will be your very own RLD editorial staff and over 50 Dodge Challenger owners. Since their cherry Challengers will be parked close by, not only will you be able to enjoy some awesome live music, you’ll also be able to gawk at some gleaming eye candy too. If you plan on catching all the Daytona action from the comfort of your living room, don’t sweat it. We’ll be on hand to cover everything from the first guitar lick to the last wave of the checkered flag, so be sure to check us out on Facebook and Twitter.
Concert details: Concert begins at 7:15 p.m. Daytona Dodge Chrysler Jeep is located at 1450 North Tomoka Farms Road. Beach 92.7 FM will be on remote at Daytona Dodge from 6-8 p.m. on Thursday.
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Hello All!!!
I got a chance to drive a 2011 Mustang the other day (V-6 convertible)… The Challenger ride is such much better,you have to do it yourself to believe the difference!!!! I hope the Nationwide racing and the great ads Chrysler group have been making for the Challenger, will get more people to see,ride,drive and buy the Challenger and other great Chrysler products!!!!
Tazallen
July 1, 2010 @ 5:23 pm
Hey Brad and Justin, lets kick some butt with this Challenger and win the race. Good luck!
July 1, 2010 @ 9:33 pm
Does anyone have or seen a picture of the two challanger starting the race yesterday side-by-side
July 3, 2010 @ 1:26 pm
After watching that race Friday night and seeing those challengers whooping everyones butt, Dodge I all I have to say is one thing you have to run the Challenger in the Cup series. I don’t care what you have to do to make this happen, but it has to. I have been watching NASCAR for a long time and have never seen a cooler race car than that. Those cars looked like the street car, and I’m saying that for all the manufacturers.
July 4, 2010 @ 12:44 am
I watched qualifications Friday. The Penske Racing team Dodge Challengers qualified 1st, 2nd, and 3rd until the #3 Chevy driven by Dale Jr in tribute to his dad placed 3rd (scripted?) and bumped Justin Allgaiers to 4th. I watched the race Friday night. I saw Brad Keselowski in the #22 Challenger power by the #6 Mustang without any help with 14 laps to go. Too bad he didn’t do it again with 2 laps to go. The Mustang finished in front of the Challenger, however truthfully nobody wanted to spoil the #3 win.
The Challenger has the best looking nose and hood in Nascar.
The Challenger is the best looking muscle car in production, and has the best ride.
July 5, 2010 @ 12:26 pm
I liked the look of the new Challengers in the Nationwide series. BUT I’d rather the Cup series stay with the Charger, in order to delineate the two series. For too long, the Nationwide and Cup series have looked the same. It would be nice, though, if Nascar could do for the Cup series, what it did for the Nationwide series and allow the Chargers to look more like the street versions. The main thing Dodge needs to do for 2011 though, is add some more teams and start supporting a RAM or 2 or 3 or 8 in the Camping World truck series.
July 7, 2010 @ 11:24 pm
too many people are wanting dodge to add more teams, its not gonna happen, the ceo of dodge said himself they dont plan on changing things for awhile, and thats good ALL there support goes to penske which is why dodge is so great this year, if they added teams they will just fail like they did when they had 12 teams, im happy with dodge! they just need to replace hornish and add a 4th cup team
July 14, 2010 @ 3:57 am
The odds of a Dodge winning in Nascar are extremely low with only 3 supported Chargers on the track in Cup, 2 in Nationwide, and none in the Truck series. Several times this year, I’ve stopped watching the race with less than 1/2 the laps run because the 3 Chargers had trouble. So far this year, only one driver (Kurt Busch) has won in Cup (twice). Last year, with RPM running Dodges, even though RPM has problems, Kasey Kahne had also won a couple of races at this point in the season. There is NO GOOD EXCUSE for supporting so few teams in the most popular auto racing series in America. I believe if Mike Accavitti was still making the Dodge Motorsports decisions at Dodge, there would be some more supported Dodge teams out there. I hope Mr. Gilles realizes the mistake he’s made concerning Nascar involvement and corrects the situation for next year.
July 14, 2010 @ 5:58 pm