The new NASCAR Nationwide Series cars will make their debut Friday night at Daytona International Speedway for the running of the Subway Jalapeño 250.
There were several changes made to the new racecars, but the most popular one seems to be the ability for manufacturers to create a better brand identity especially at the front of the car.
For Dodge the new car resembles a Challenger, Chevy the Impala and Ford the Mustang.
While all the makes are popular, the biggest splash seems to have been with the Mustang. The Ford Mustang has been one of the most popular muscle cars on the street for decades with a subculture that has been buzzing about the new NASCAR racecar since it was announced.
Tuesday I got a chance not only to see the new NASCAR Nationwide Series Mustang up close, but took a few laps in the new machine.
We were at the Walt Disney World Speedway in Orlando, a one mile tri-oval that has been the site of several NASCAR Truck Series and IndyCar races in the past. I had been around the track before; several years ago as a passenger with Carl Edwards behind the wheel of a Richard Petty Driving Experience car and in an open wheel two seater with Davey Hamilton, which was not an experience for the faint of heart.
Last year the old racer in me got a chance to get back behind the wheel when I was given the opportunity to take one of the RPDE cars for a few laps as part of a media event.
While all the previous laps I had turned on the speedway were fast, nothing compared to the speed the Mustang showed Tuesday.
The car is actually one owned by Roush-Fenway Racing, and unlike the previous racecars, this was an actual racecar that the team had simply bolted a passenger seat and belts into.
My driver for the ride was rookie Rickey Stenhouse Jr. who will race a similar car Friday night at Daytona. Stenhouse had never turned any laps on the track, but his lack of experience didn’t show. The laps turned in the Mustang were easily the fastest I had ever experienced on the track, bar none. The only thing that kept flashing through my mind as we rocketed around the track was ‘this thing is wicked fast’.
Indeed several of the RPDE employees agreed and although there were no times or speeds recorded, several of the employees seemed to think the lap speeds were in the mid 130’s. Compare that to my low 120’s, Edwards mid 120’s and the IndyCar’s high 120’s and Friday night’s race with the new cars looks to be ‘wicked fast’.
"It's gonna be awesome,” Stenhouse said. “Obviously, the night race at Daytona is a cool race anyway, and to have the new Mustang come out, which I think is the best-looking car out of the new Nationwide cars, I think the fans will agree and there's just gonna be a lot of excitement going into it."
Stenhouse also said he was surprised at the Mustang subculture he discovered after the car was announced.
"I was at an appearance a few weeks ago and there were some members of the Mustang Club there and they were all excited,” he said. “They told me that the whole Mustang Club was excited about it, so that's cool that the Mustang Club is back into NASCAR. We've had the Fusion for a few years, but now that you can get Mustang back into the sport, it might invite fans that weren't fans before. There are a lot of people and kids that are a fan of Mustang, but maybe not a fan of NASCAR. Now, I think we'll be able to draw them in and turn them into big fans."
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