Ford to race Mustang in Sprint Cup

Ford Racing officials hope that Ford’s Sprint Cup car will look like a Mustang and be branded as a Mustang in the near future, Edsel B. Ford II said Saturday morning. The Mustang was introduced this year as Ford’s new car for the Nationwide Series, which introduced the new car for four races in 2010 and for all events in 2011. Currently, Ford teams race the Ford Fusion in Sprint Cup. The most likely scenario for a change would come in 2013, the expected rollout for the second version of the relatively new Cup car.

“It helps to have the Mustang in Nationwide, and there are a lot of us who wish we could do it simultaneously in Cup as well," said Ford, a member of the Ford Motor Company board of directors and the great-grandson of company founder Henry Ford. “The sooner the better. Let’s be frank: Motorsports enthusiasts are not going to buy Fusions because they see a Fusion win here, are they?

“It’s not our performance model. Mustang is. To have a Mustang on the track in NASCAR is the right direction. The Nationwide car looks like a Mustang. It meets the criteria."

Manufacturers and NASCAR are working on a new version of the current Cup car for 2013, a version that will increase brand identity for manufacturers, much like the new Nationwide car. Ford’s Nationwide car is branded as a Mustang while the Dodge is branded as a Challenger. Chevrolet opted not to put the Camaro in the Nationwide Series because it couldn’t get the look it wanted. Toyota doesn’t have a muscle car and continues to use the Camry nameplate in Nationwide.

“It’s like the Trans-Am days, and I think it’s going to be really interesting to watch – how will the Saturday crowds look vis-a-vis the Sunday crowds," Ford said. The season-ending weekend at Homestead-Miami Speedway is big for Ford, which sponsors all three NASCAR national touring stock-car series finales.

Ford is using this weekend to promote three new vehicles by having them pace the races – the new Ford Explorer, which features better fuel economy, will pace the Sprint Cup race while the limited production Mustang Boss 302 paced the Nationwide race and an F-150 that used the new EcoBoost truck engine was the pace vehicle for the truck race.

NASCAR is still giving the company positive results, Ford said.

“The research shows that NASCAR fans are very loyal to Ford, and that’s why we’re here," Ford said. Scenedaily