Charging through the memories

If you're under 30 – like my editor – you probably won't relate to this column.

But if you're an old geezer like me – someone of the Baby Boomer era who is closer to 50 than 40 – there's nothing like an old muscle car from the late '60s and early '70s to get the blood pumping again.

The old ticker skips an extra beat and a bad day can suddenly turn good when I see the likes of a still-running Dodge Challenger, Pontiac GTO, Plymouth Barracuda or Roadrunner, or a Chevrolet Chevelle SS396 on the street.

If they're in mint condition, even better – but hey, I'll even get moderately excited at a dented-up beater if it's still in fairly decent shape.

What I wouldn't give to have one of those classics in my garage today.

But the meanest and baddest muscle car of em all, without question, was the Dodge Charger. With its elongated nose and stout tail, one look and you knew this car meant business. It looked fast coming up in your rearview mirror, and even faster as you sucked on its exhaust fumes after it effortlessly blew past.

They didn't call it "hard" Charger for nothing.

That's why I'm so excited about the Charger nameplate coming back to NASCAR. Back in the day, the Charger pretty much ruled the roost, both prior to and after the series was renamed from Grand National to Winston Cup.

When I think of NASCAR in the late '60s to late '70s, one picture immediately comes to mind: Richard Petty in the sky blue No. 43 Charger, sponsored by STP. The King would go on to win 37 races and three of his NASCAR championships behind the wheel of a Charger.

Sorry, Ford, Chevy and the rest of GM, Petty and the Charger embodied all of what was right and good about NASCAR racing to me back then.

And now, after nearly 30 years away, the same Charger nameplate returns to Cup racing. Dodge returned to NASCAR competition in 2001 with the Intrepid. Now, the Charger becomes the second generation, picking up where the Intrepid left off – with the promise of scaling even higher heights than its predecessor.

"I think we're going to win a lot of races this year," said John Fernandez, director of Dodge Motorsports Operations.

If the new generation Charger is anything like its grandfather, it poses perhaps a bigger threat to Chevrolet's recent dominance than anything Ford or any other make and model have been able to muster.

"When you say the name Charger, it brings with it a lot of responsibility for performance," said John Wherly, engineering manager for Dodge Motorsports.

Wherly knows of what he talks about. He was a member of the original team that developed the Charger in the '60s with Richard and Lee Petty and legendary crew chief Harry Hyde. This new edition is the real deal, Wherly assures.

"When we first developed the Charger for the street, it had fantastic performance," he said. "We were able to duplicate that on the racetrack. That is our game plan for the new Charger as well."

Petty as a driver and the Charger as a car set the standard most other drivers of that era were measured by. Try as they may, the likes of Junior Johnson, Cale Yarborough, Buddy Baker, David Pearson, Benny Parsons and so many others simply could not hold a candle to Petty and the Charger.

"The Charger is a name that brings back a lot of the '60s and the horsepower and get up and go and stuff," said Kyle Petty, Richards's son. "You've got the GTO and the Nova, but for Petty Enterprises, it's the Charger."

And if any Dodge-powered team has ever needed a significant boost in recent years, it's Petty Enterprises. With the combination of Ray Evernham Motorsports providing engines and the reintroduction of the Charger this season, the Petty nameplate could finally be back on the road to achieving some of the same glory it did when Richard was behind the wheel.

"The Charger sounds like racing to me," Richard Petty said. "Hopefully some of the Charger tradition will rub off on the team. I know our crew is excited. Hopefully the name will excite the fans, too."

Even some of NASCAR's young guns of today, who either were too young or weren't even around when the Charger was in its heyday, know its legacy and history.

"The name Charger just sounds hungry," said Casey Mears, driver of the No. 41 Charger. "It sounds racy. Hopefully this will be the year of the Charger."

Added Jeremy Mayfield, driver of the No. 19 Charger, "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.

The new Charger has a reputation and pedigree to live up to, and Dodge hopes it is ready to pick up from where it was left off so many years ago.

"I don't remember the old Charger days, but it was cool talking to Richard Petty about it today," said Jamie McMurray, driver of the No. 42 Dodge. "If this new Charger can have half the success he had with it, it'll be a real good car."