Dodge's hard Charger

Don't look now, but the much-maligned Dodge Charger may be on the verge of winning its third Nextel Cup race in a row.

Of course, just saying that may have jinxed it for the Dodge teams, but I doubt it.

Kurt Busch's win on Sunday at Bristol driving the Dodge Charger raised a lot of eyebrows in the Cup garage, not just because of the manner in which Busch claimed his victory – with an Earnhardt-esque bump-and-run move – but because it was the second win in a row for the Charger.

Busch's victory, following Kasey Kahne's win with the Dodge Charger at Atlanta Motor Speedway, tightened the season-long manufacturers' standings after five races. Chevy leads Dodge 34-32. Ford is third with 29 points.

The win on the short oval at Bristol, along with one at the super-fast, high-downforce Atlanta track, has Dodge teams smiling from ear to ear. Their hard work seems to be finally paying off.

All last season, Dodge teams complained that the Charger was a good car in qualifying trim, but a good race day balance was nearly impossible to find.

Kahne attributed his win at Atlanta to the long offseason hours of the Evernham Motorsports team, which tried to build a car that Kahne and crew chief Kenny Francis could actually make better as the race progressed.

"It's not moving around as much on the racetrack getting into the corners," said Kahne following his win at Atlanta.

Petty Racing sits poised to be the next team to score a win with the Charger. After years of running in the back of the field, the legendary Petty organization is back to running up front.

At Bristol last Sunday, the Petty Chargers driven by Bobby Labonte and Kyle Petty finished fifth and 18th, respectively. It was former Cup champion Labonte's best showing yet for the Petty team.

"We had a little bit of luck today and we had a good race car. Of course, that's what we needed," said Labonte, whose Dodge led 13 laps at Atlanta before a sour engine ended his day. "After (Atlanta) we were confident we could run well. We just had to put everything together. The guys are building better cars. They're working hard, and it was a good team effort."

Team owner Kyle Petty has been a Charger supporter since Day 1.

"We felt the Intrepid had some plusses," Petty said. "We've learned some things from the Intrepid that we've transferred over to the Charger. I think Ray (Evernham) and those guys have done the same thing. They've learned some things from the wind tunnels and stuff that they've transferred to the Charger."

Petty also likes to point out that the Atlanta track, with its ultra-fast turns, has long favored the Ford engine and aerodynamic package. But, according to Petty, that may have changed.

"For whatever reason, with the tire Goodyear brought, our engine package was phenomenal at Atlanta," Petty said. "When you look at that package, Atlanta became a Dodge track all of a sudden."

Petty says that adding both Bobby Labonte and general manager Robbie Loomis – with their years of experience running a Chevrolet – and crew chief Todd Parrott from the Ford camp allowed them to get a solid baseline on the difference between the Charger and Intrepid. It also helped them see how the Charger and Intrepid stack up against the Chevy and Ford body.

"I think we all knew that with Robbie and Bobby and Todd – bringing those guys over, reconnecting with Paul Andrews and putting their heads together – we would go somewhere," Petty said.

"We just hadn't been getting it done when we get to the race track. I think that's one of the things Robbie has brought to the table, a lot of the knowledge of how to get it done. That has also been one of the things Todd has brought to this team. I think Paul had been trying to hammer it in our heads and we just weren't listening."

Of course, switching to Evernham engines also has made a huge difference.

"The engine performance is right there with the Chevys and Fords," Petty said. "We'll continue to tweak the Charger and get better and better."

Petty would like to be the team that makes it three in a row for Dodge.

"Obviously, when you're the only manufacturer right now that's able to go three for three, that would be big for Dodge because it's been awhile," Petty said.

"We struggled with the Charger last year, but with one year under your belt, I think everybody's got a little bit better with it, a little more tuned to the subtleties of the car. We'll just continue to get a little better."

Veteran motorsports writer Bob Margolis is Yahoo! Sports' NASCAR reporter. Send Bob a question or comment for potential use in a future column or webcast.

Updated on Thursday, Mar 30, 2006 12:30 pm, EST

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