Sergio Marchionne, who is the CEO of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, said he spoke with NASCAR vice-chairman Jim France and International Speedway Inc. CEO Lesa France Kennedy about the return of Dodge to the stock-car series. The three had dinner Saturday night during the Ferrari Finali Mondiali at Daytona International Speedway. Marchionne, who is also CEO of Ferrari, was in town for the Ferrari-only World Finals and Sunday’s Formula One exhibition. Asked about the return to NASCAR, Marchionne said, ‘Yes,’ then explained it. ‘I talked to Jim France about this (Saturday) night,’ he said. ‘I was the one who made the decision to pull out of NASCAR. I am the guilty party at the table. In 2009, we came out bankruptcy and tried to race NASCAR (but) with the big bills and make payroll was a stretch. We are in a different place now. I think it is possible we can come back to NASCAR. I think we need to find the right way to come back in, but I agreed with both Jim and Lesa we would come back to the issue.’ France confirmed that he had spoken to Marchionne about bringing Dodge back into NASCAR’s top series.(Daytona Beach News Journal)(12-4-2016)
UPDATE: NASCAR vice president of marketing and communications David Higdon commented: ‘There is increasing excitement around NASCAR. We continue to have on-going dialogue with a number of auto manufacturers about their interest in joining our sport. We look forward to exploration with them on this topic.’
