Dodge Charger Pursuit to pace this weekend's Phoenix NASCAR races

Dodge isn't wasting any time after seeing Monday night's wrecks at the Daytona 500. This weekend, we'll see some police cruisers on the track.

The 2012 Dodge Charger Pursuit will pace the March 3-4 NASCAR races in Phoenix. It will mark Dodge's 62nd year in stock-car racing--Carl Wilkerson first drove a Dodge Coronet in the 1950 Grand National race in Canfield, Ohio.

The Charger Pursuit is available with either a 3.6-liter Pentastar V6 making 292 hp or a 5.7-liter Hemi V8 making 390 hp. We'd bet the pace car will carry the Hemi.

The vehicle is hot off its victory at the Michigan State Police's annual evaluation, where it laid down a record-setting time of 1 minute 33.7 seconds at the test track.

The Nationwide Series race is on Saturday at 4 p.m. on ESPN2, and the Sprint Cup contest is on Sunday at 2:30 p.m. on Fox. You can get complete race updates all weekend long right here at autoweek.com/racing.

By Jake Lingeman