Q&A: Mike Accavitti (cont'd)

Q: Dodge announced in 2008 it would cut the support of its Truck Series program, but if someone elects to run a Ram pickup in 2009, what does that mean?

We're not going to sponsor one particular team. We had a great relationship with the Bobby Hamilton [Racing] folks and it was a tragedy when Bobby passed away, but Lori [Shuler Hamilton, his widow] did a fantastic job of keeping the ship going.

Race fans will receive a sneak peek of Speedweeks 2009 as well as the new racing season on Jan. 16-17 with the annual Preseason Thunder Fan Fests.

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Speedweeks

Date	Event
Feb. 7	Budweiser Shootout
Feb. 8	Daytona 500 qualifying
Feb. 12	Gatorade Duel
Feb. 13	Truck Series race
Feb. 14	N'wide Series race
Feb. 15	Daytona 500

But the Truck Series was just something, and we made a decision some years ago, that we weren't really getting our money's worth out of that Truck Series. It's a good series for some folks to sponsor, but it just wasn't resonating with us. We've always been kind of the poor kid on the block and we had to watch the dimes that we spend in NASCAR, so we actually decided a couple years ago that we were not going to renew our relationships in the Truck Series when they expired at the end of [2008].

So that was another contribution to that 30 percent [cutback] figure that we were talking about. But we'll have some parts available for purchase in the warehouse, if people want to run Dodge vehicles.

If our contract engineers are there and if they're asked a question, they might give them a response or be able to help out with something; but we're not going to have any dedicated staff for that Truck Series.

Q: What will Dodge's presence be in the Nationwide Series?

Our Nationwide Series support really occurs through our Cup teams that have Nationwide Series cars. So Penske [Racing], ran a couple cars -- one for sure and sometimes two because they wanted to get Sam [Hornish] or Ryan [Newman] or Kurt [Busch] some track time -- and the Gillett Evernham team ran the 9 car and sometimes another when they put Chase [Miller] in there.

So we supported them through out Cup Series [program] but we don't really have any direct support. We used to help Rusty [Wallace] out with his [Busch Series] team, but that's another area where we kind of had to dial-back on, and really focus all of our horses on that Sprint Cup Series, so that's where we're at with that series.

Again, if those questions are asked, our guys are there -- they're in those shops anyway and helping their engineers anyway -- so there's availability for them. And we used to help out Chip [Ganassi] in the Nationwide Series.

Q: When you look at the 2009 Sprint Cup Series, when you look at GEM and Penske, where they've got what looks like three cars apiece and each organization won races last season, and with the Petty organization kind of up in the air right now, are you maybe in a better position with more quality versus quantity?

We've had faith in all of our teams. Chip's team was very capable of winning, with Juan winning at Sonoma a couple years back for his first NASCAR victory, which was super sweet. But we feel that we have, with the organizations that we have left, a very good representation on track.

You've got Kurt Busch, who's a former champion and picking up David Stremme now, along with Sam Hornish Jr., who's going to come around and be an excellent Cup driver.

Kasey [Kahne] is incredible. I've got pictures all around my house of me in Victory Lane with Kasey Kahne holding up multiple fingers, so we know that he can win. Elliott's [Sadler] a great guy and he had some really shining moments [in 2008] and with Reed [Sorenson] moving over to the GEM team that's really going to solidify that third team.

The Petty guys and the No. 43 -- there's just so much history there that we feel that with this portfolio we can provide entertainment to our Dodge fans, we can provide a good race and we can win some races this year in the upcoming season.

So we're very excited with where we're at. You know, ideally we'd all be trillionaires and we could buy whatever we want and all the race teams that we'd like to have, but with the portfolio that we have, we have a great representation of champions -- a lot of fans follow those drivers; they're capable of winning races and they're going to in 2009.

Q: With the way the 2008 season began at Daytona, do you feel added pressure in starting off in 2009?

You know, that Daytona 500 -- the 50th Daytona 500 -- you couldn't have asked for a sweeter victory. And just how it came down [because] it's an exciting enough race to watch as it is. But I was watching it with Bob Nardelli, our chairman, and we were speechless -- no, we were yelling like crazy, and then after the checkered flag dropped, we were speechless.

It was just such a fantastic way to start the season, and it wasn't just the one and the two [winner Newman and second place Busch] that got me excited -- it was the five, six, seven and eight right behind it that really demonstrated that the Dodge teams had it.

So we started out very optimistic, but then the wheels just came off the car. A lot of things go into winning a race and a lot of things go into losing a race and we all have a piece of it. We all understand that, and what I mean by that is the teams know their part and we know our part.

It's a moving train. It's easy to start finding stuff [that needs fixing] but it's difficult, of course, to correct when you've got another race in six days. So we feel this down time between the seasons is going to give us a chance to get dressed right and ready for next season.

It'll be hard to top that victory that we had at Daytona, but we actually intend to try to do it again. So we'll see how it goes, but we're very optimistic for 2009.