Maybe he was just saying it because he figured he had to, but Roger Penske sure seemed to believe his own hype.

His Penske Racing operation, which consists in 2010 of three full-time Sprint Cup cars and two full-time Nationwide Series cars, is down to being the sole remaining NASCAR organization aligned with Dodge Motorsports. But just when everyone else was looking at this fact as a potential disaster in the making, Penske made them do a double-take.

“

You've got to make sure you're able to provide the equipment that's necessary for us to try to get to the winner's circle. ... I think our friends at Dodge will work really hard to help make that happen.

”

-- ROGER PENSKE

He insisted that it is "a competitive advantage" for his organization to be the last remaining survivor of NASCAR's Dodge racing family. His thinking is that now he has to share Dodge's dollars and technology with absolutely no one.

Plus, Penske pointed out, his best car was pretty darn good a year ago -- when the No. 2 Dodge driven by Kurt Busch won Cup races and finished fourth in the standings behind only a trio of Hendrick Motorsports drivers in four-time defending champion Jimmie Johnson, Mark Martin and Jeff Gordon.

"Let's reflect a little bit on 2009," Penske said. "I guess we beat all the Fords. I guess we beat all the Toyotas. We just didn't beat all the Hendrick [cars]. If anybody has an insight on how to do that, I'll gladly add one more person to our staff at Penske Racing in 2010."

It's not that simple, of course, and Penske knows it.

And while Busch is happy to sing the company line about having a competitive advantage as the only Dodge group left in the fight, the prevailing opinion elsewhere is not so rosy for Penske Racing.

"I admire Mr. Penske. I've always said that there are probably only three or four guys in this sport that I would want to work for, and Mr. Penske is one of those guys -- with his passion that he has for racing," said Robbie Loomis, director of competition for Richard Petty Motorsports

"But also, I will tell you that when we partnered up with Boston Ventures [two years ago] and we had some meetings with a couple of other owners that I also respect, I remember one of 'em telling me, 'Look, I sit here today growing from a three-car team to a four-car team. I'm fearing that I'm already behind. You're not going to be able to survive as a two-car team and be successful and win championships.' As soon as I heard that, I called Richard on the way home and said, 'Richard, we're going to be getting ready to get with somebody soon [to merge] because we're not going to be able to go at it as a two-car team.' " (Continued)