A source at Ford Motor Company says the motorsports division expects the Ford Mustang to replace the Fusion in the NASCAR Nationwide Series in 2008. “We’re expecting to run the Mustang in 2009,” the source said. It’s the first confirmation from a manufacturer what I [Cole] first reported in early 2006 - that the cars in the NASCAR Busch series, which will be called the Nationwide series in 2008 and beyond - may soon be substantially different from the cars in the top-tier Nextel Cup series.
NASCAR is expected to require the Busch cars to be built to a safety specification similar to the Nextel Cup “Car of Tomorrow,” which becomes the standard car after the Daytona 500 in February. If a makeover will be required anyway for the 2009 season, logic suggests that would be a good time for a nameplate change, as well.
That said, it may not be a done deal. Reportedly Chevrolet is balking at running the Camaro in the NASCAR series. Rumors suggest that Dodge is considering a Busch series version of the Challenger, which just went on sale at a price of under $38,000, for delivery in 2008. Dodge will build 5,000 Challengers in 2008, and expects to increase that number by sevenfold for 2009. Sales expectations for the Chevrolet Camaro are higher. With the discontinuation of the Monte Carlo, Chevrolet has no sports coupe aside from the Corvette and the small Cobalt SS, and won’t until the Camaro is introduced. The Corvette will continue to race in the American Le Mans and Grand-Am series, though one contingent within General Motors is pressing for a body change for the ALMS GT1 class, where GM’s two factory Corvettes literally have no competition: They’d like to see those Corvettes rebodied as Camaros to help launch that model, which won’t hit the market until well after the Challenger.
Also, the move to “pony car” coupes could cause a problem for Toyota. The Camry Solara, a two-door sedan version of the top-selling car in the United States, may disappear after the 2008 model year. Sales are dismal; Toyota is expected to build only about 30,000 Solaras this year, compared to about 400,000 Camry sedans. One possibility at Toyota: Automotive News says that the company is expected to introduce a new Celica sports coupe in Europe in 2009. If that car comes here, it could be raced in NASCAR. The discontinued Celica made some appearances in the now-defunct NASCAR Dash series. If the move to the Mustang, et al, is to be made for 2009, that announcement would be expected soon after the first of next year.
- Drastic change for Busch Series? Pony cars by 2009
- Edwards, Kenseth and Biffle get Ford Shelby GT500KRs
- Alex Tagliani to Race Grand-Am This Weekend at Trois-Rivieres
- Truex will race for DEI at least through 2009
- Claritin to sponsor Edwards for select races
lets see..
mustang
challenger
camaro
celica
which one does not belong?
I’m actually looking forward to this. I think it would be awesome to see some different cars, especially the muscle cars/pony cars that are making their comeback. And it makes a lot of sense too, to have different types of cars in each series. I’m excited to see it, I hope it actually happens. I’m not too sure about Toyota though, the celica?? What the heck?! That’s not really a match for the Camaro, Mustang, or the Challenger. Maybe they can come up with something else, or they can just pull out of the Busch (Nationwide) series. Anyway, I’m excited about this, I really do hope they do it!
Considering the only difference this makes is a new sticker in the place of Fusion i wonder why their doing this?
yea does it really matter with the COT…it’s just a name. they might as well just call it a Ford, Chevy, Dodge, and Toyota….
“lets see..
mustang
challenger
camaro
celica
which one does not belong?”
Don’t get me wronng im all for change and won’t complain about any of it but what ganjadude said was funny as hell!!!
No sure on what the name of the Toyota car will be, or if it’ll be badged as a Scion or not, but it’ll most likely look like the First Gen Celica http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/78/Celica2000gt.jpg
Brandon wrote:
nick wrote:
Actually according to people who have worked with the first real Nationwide COTs when they took them to the windtunnel a few weeks ago, They look like the production cars, just with a “NASCARized” fascia & spoiler.
nick wrote:
True, it’s sad. That as long as you have the money to print out the decals, then anybody can have a Nascar program. ****ing COT
Just remember wheel base.
kel93 wrote:
NASCAR is going to use the same chassis, so the wheelbase for the Nationwide cars will be 110″.
Fisha695 wrote:
sweet so if the cars are going to look anything like the production mustang or camaro then its going to be pretty badass.
If Toyota would bring back the Supra, there wouldn’t be a problem for them.
Wow, what responces, personally I am looking forward to this too, but I would like to see what these cars in NASCAR’s eye’s would look like first before I truely say “I’m on board with Pony cars in the 2009 Nationwide Series.”
Oh yeah, the cars would be Chevrolet Camaro, Ford Mustang, Dodge Challenger and the Toyota Camry Solara (there is no celica in the Toyota lineup no more), sorry… This would be a good idea if the solara was a pony car, but foreign/imports don’t build muscle car/pony cars.
Maybe the 2009 Nationwide Series should be the sport compact class, running the Chevy Cobalt, Ford Focus, Dodge Caliber and the Toyota Matrix… at least Toyota would fix in the lineup better.
Racedriven, check out this quote from the article on Jayski.
“The Camry Solara, a two-door sedan version of the top-selling car in the United States, may disappear after the 2008 model year. Sales are dismal; Toyota is expected to build only about 30,000 Solaras this year, compared to about 400,000 Camry sedans. One possibility at Toyota: Automotive News says that the company is expected to introduce a new Celica sports coupe in Europe in 2009. If that car comes here, it could be raced in NASCAR. The discontinued Celica made some appearances in the now-defunct NASCAR Dash series”
Racedriven wrote:
Well foreign/import cars don’t need muscle cars. They get more horsepower and torque out of a smaller motor.
Plus by 2009 Toyota will have announced a new Supra(do you really think Toyota is going to sit back and let Nissan’s new Skyline take all the glory?ummmm no). And that will probably be a smarter choice for them if they were to change the nameplate. Why they would change the nameplate from the Camry is beyond me though.
yeah its about time, i am a mustang gal
My mistake, I had heard rumors a while abck of a Toyota Supra in the works, but I haven’t seen anything confirmed, as for the celica, that’s a first for me. I would be surprised at Toyota if they used the solara in the Nationwide Series if NASCAR does in fact go this direction, but using the Supra would be cool to see.
One thing is for sure and not to get off subject, but Toyota does need a real sports car for this to work. Personally I’m not interested in seeing the Solara in the Nationwide series period.
Like I said above, what about using Sport compacts?
That could be interesting to see and everyone’s got them, plus look at the NHRA Pro Stock class, they have a nice Cobalt that work good in Nationwide Series.
Personally I would love to have the Cup, Nationwide, and Truck series be opened up to more then one make per manufacture.
A friend of mine sent me this link and I chuckled to myself. “Stock” car racing seems to be an oxymoron seeing as the majority of the “stock” cars don’t even bother to use the original drivetrain configuration (other than the addition of the Charger) nevermind any resemblance to their so-called street driven counterparts that they supposedly represent, but it looks like they may at least get back a little closer to the homologation (look it up kids, it really did exist once upon a time!) rules of the past with the return of the front engined/rear wheel drive cars. As far as foreign based competition I say bring it on! The racing socialists otherwise know as Nascar will eventually change the rules to assure that they too will be competitive, remember “No race team left behind”…
nascar should change their rules to something more like the Australian V8 Supercar Series. Those cars look like the road cars, because they are actually based on them!
Even having to use a stock body with a front and rear spoiler hung on a tube-frame chassis would be interesting… Then you would really see the advantages from the track incorporated into the road cars because the road cars would need to be changed to make the race cars more competitive!