In an effort to hype up its performance division, Ford confirmed earlier reports today that it will introduce a Mustang-esque race car in the NASCAR Nationwide Series later this year. Though the design will share no mechanicals whatsoever with the production Mustang as it must comply with NASCAR’s regulations, the basic appearance of the race car will approximate the street car.
“We had been talking with NASCAR for some time about Mustang as part of its vision for a ‘muscle car’ rollout for the Nationwide Series. We both saw it as a way of differentiating the series from Sprint Cup,†said Ford North America Motorsports director Brian Wolf in a prepared statement.
“We loved the idea, so we jumped on the chance to extend Mustang’s racing legacy to a new series reaching a huge and loyal audience. Mustang has dominated other forms of racing, including NHRA drag racing, Grand-Am Cup road racing, and Formula D drifting, and now it’s coming to NASCAR Nationwide.
Ford says that it has gone through the submission and approval process with NASCAR for the new design and that once templates provided to race teams are finalized, production of the parts will begin. Ford said that the first cars built by NASCAR teams will begin testing later this fall, though the automaker did not specify a particular roll-out date.
Should the anticipated Dodge Challenger-body NASCAR race car see the light of day, the muscle car wars will, at least in some form, be back on the track. Only Toyota’s Camry and Chevrolet’s Impala will be the odd men out, though it should be noted that no NASCAR racer shares more than a screw or two with a production car.
