Over the weekend, FCA CEO Sergio Marchionne said that he had spoken with racing leaders about bringing Dodge back into NASCAR.

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Mr. Marchionne was quoted as saying that he had personally chosen to pull out of NASCAR, because money was too tight at the time.  NASCAR vice chair Jim France confirmed this, saying of Marchionne, “He is a very intelligent man.”

NASCAR’s top series has “stock car” races that run carefully monitored, nearly identical cars that have no parts in common with dealership stock, but have decal packages which make them appear similar. Dodge never left NASCAR’s Canadian series, dominating it in recent years ; and when they did leave NASCAR racing  in 2012, it was just after winning the championship .

If Dodge did come back to NASCAR, chances are it would not happen until the 2018 season. One observer wrote, “I would guess it would take until about 2020 to race at the top level. They would need to buy a charter (or two) from a current team just to get onto the track; the top level teams are already all spoken for. Maybe by 2020 a top level team might willing to switch. By then, a whole new type of body might be required and plenty of work would have to be done to the last Mopar Nascar motor to bring it back to the top level.”