Dodge tries to catch Ford 1969
Talladega Wins at Daytona
If you like Fords, this is an interesting video for you! The title of the video is “The Chargers“. It is all about the drivers who drove the Dodge Charger 500. It is a good representation of racing from the past and NASCAR TV. There were no live broadcasts at that time. Even short, delayed TV coverage was rare. If you stay with this video for the entire 25 minutes, you will end up with a big smile on your face and may even snicker a couple of times.
As a refresher, the “Dodge Boys” in those white hats back in the day redesigned their regular Dodge Charger, creating the more aerodynamic Charger 500. As the video explains, they needed to catch the Fords on the race track. After years of dominating on NASCAR tracks, the Dodges were losing to the new 1968/1969 more aerodynamic fast Ford Fairlanes. No longer was Dodge dominating on the track.
1969 & 1969 NASCAR Champion
The Charger 500, with its flush grille and sloping rear window, was supposed to be sleek in the air and garner a lot of wins.
Even though Ford was dominating, the Blue Oval engineers were not asleep at the wheel! In 1969, Ford showed up at Daytona with the 1969 Ford Talladega. It was even more aerodynamic than the regular production Fairlane/Torino. It was now even more aerodynamic than the much ballyhooed 1969 Dodge Charger 500!
The MOPAR race car drivers needed more help, and the MOPAR engineers were beside themselves. The big shots at Dodge and the dealers selling (or not selling) new Chargers demanded something more. Dodge was about to spend a lot of money! Shortly after the 1969 Daytona race, things even got worse for Dodge. The Mercury Cyclone Spoiler II hit the high speed ovals, plus the Boss 429 engine was homologated for NASCAR and became the preferred engine for the Ford/Mercury teams!
There was a surplus of aeronautical engineers at NASA due to cutbacks in the space race. Chrysler bosses hired some of those aero experts to again modify the Dodge Charger to make it even more aerodynamic and, as a result, faster! The result was the outlandish 1969 Dodge Daytona. It was a high speed bullet for the superspeedways. It was fast but not the dominating threat that the bosses at Chrysler/Dodge had hoped for. Even the addition of the less aerodynamic Plymouth Super Bird in 1970 made much of a difference. Ford’s eventual loss of domination arguably came in late 1969 when the higher ups succumbed to the Federal Government’s pressure to get out of racing and put more emphasis on safety.
