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.' "

With that in mind, Petty Enterprises quickly went from standing alone to partnering with Boston Ventures to merging with Gillett Evernham Motorsports before it came to rest as the new Richard Petty Motorsports. And it didn't stop there. This season it has further merged with Yates Racing and has abandoned Dodge as manufacturer in favor of Ford.

As far as Loomis is concerned, the bigger the extended team family, the better. There is more information to share in an era where technological information and simulation data have become increasingly more important.

In two years, then, the Petty operation went from a two-car standalone team to one that is four cars and now is aligned tightly with another four-car Ford organization in Roush Fenway Racing.

"I think you've got to be in that alliance," Loomis said. "I think if you look at the Stewart-Haas [Racing] relationship that they have with Hendrick -- I've been fortunate enough to be on the inside walls at Hendrick, and I know what comes out of that place -- that's what we're trying to create."

Rick Hendrick, the man behind the dynasty that Hendrick Motorsports has become, also professed great personal respect for Penske. And then he echoed the same thoughts of Loomis.

"You know, I think if you were back under the old scenario where you could show up with a Dodge piece and [NASCAR] would approve it even though it didn't look nothin' like the rest of the other cars, I would say yes, that could be a huge advantage," Hendrick said. "If you won a lot, Chevrolet would get a real big spoiler and everybody else would get a lot smaller of a spoiler. That's not right, and that's not how we do it now.

"So I think I would rather be part of a big multi-car team with [Richard] Childress [Racing] and Stewart-Haas, myself. I can't speak for [Penske], but I like the fact that we have the big team approach. If we have a problem with motors, we can even go to Childress. There are certain areas where we can work together to help each other, but then we have to go race against each other. I'd prefer what we've got -- and I think we've been pretty successful."

Meanwhile, Busch said he believes in the wisdom of his boss. He said he has faith that Penske's "competitive advantage" comment came from the heart and will prove prophetic even as the crowd skeptical of that seems to be growing.

"I understand where Roger's coming from. It's a great way to get fired up about a certain piece of our team that is being questioned," Busch said. "That was a case in point when [crew chief] Pat Tryson was leaving our team last year. Roger sat me down and said, 'What do you want to do?' And I said, 'Roger, I'm here to follow your lead.' And he said, 'Well, let's keep business as usual until we find a point to change.'

"With this Dodge revamp and with us being the only Dodge team, you follow his type of lead and his business ethics and his vision. I like it because it reminds me somewhat of a Formula One-style program, where they have all of their eggs in one basket.

"Can that be good? Will that be bad? I like it because there aren't going to be any other Dodge teams in the garage that are going to call us out for what we have to NASCAR. That happens all the time. When I was with Ford, there would be other Ford teams that would throw us under the bus faster than any other team -- because they knew what was going on. So it's amazing how things can come back around and hurt you internally. We're hoping this is a positive all the way around."

Penske certainly is hoping so, too.

"There is no question that Kurt came alive [in 2009]," Penske said. "Overall, it was a strong season. And the way we finished the season, I think, gives us a lot of momentum going forward.

"To me, when you've got a stable of three [Cup] drivers, 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."