Kurt Busch to Dodge? With Furniture Row?

Kurt Busch is on a one year deal with Phoenix Racing. Dodge is looking for a NASCAR Sprint Cup team to represent it’s nameplate.

The talk is not likely to die down as Furniture Row Racing general manager Joe Garone confirmed that there have been initial talks with Dodge about making a switch to the manufacturer and adding a second team. “If Dodge comes to us and says here’s the right deal, we would do it,” Garone said. “They’re trying to figure out who they’re going to do it with and how they’re going to do it.”

Furniture Row currently gets its chassis from Richard Childress Racing and engines from Earnhardt Childress Racing. Everything else is built in the organization’s Denver shop.

Furniture Row intends to keep Regan Smith under contract for the 2013 season. Smith has stuck with the organization as it has built itself up. Smith won at Darlington Raceway last year. Garone said they are waiting on a decision from Dodge before completing a deal with Smith. “It’s our intention to bring him back,” Garone said. “With all this other stuff pending, you don’t make a commitment and find there is another avenue we should have taken.”

The second team could be headed up by 2004 Sprint Cup Series champion Kurt Busch. Garone has said that signing Busch would depend on finding a sponsor or getting factory financial help to support a second team.

Busch and Smith have a history of working together at Daytona and Talladega; dating back to Busch’s time at Penske Racing.

Dodge is not going to be at the upcoming test for the 2013 car at Martinsville.

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