By Jen Dunnaway

Editor

This week at Talladega, the competing automakers are each officially debuting their Nationwide Series version of the Car of Tomorrow–and at least two out of the four are opting for  ponycar-based racers. Dodge’s Nationwide Challenger is the hottest ride to take to the NASCAR circuit since the 70′s, and the NASCAR-ed out Mustang, while awkward, is nonetheless going to be a huge shot in the arm for both Ford and the troubled Nationwide Series. The odd man out? (Well, Toyota is sticking with the Camry, because of course they don’t have anything less boring to base a stock car on). But Chevrolet, probably the biggest underwriter of NASCAR in the world, inexplicably opted not to build a Nationwide car based on the new Camaro. What? Yeah, they’re going to stick with the now-played-out Impala, the same nameplate they use in Sprint Cup. Chevy officials made vague PR-sounding excuses about not wanting to compromise the new Camaro’s iconic lines, citing the partially templatized body they’d have to conform to (okay, for one thing, what iconic lines? The Camaro looks like a cartoon, but in a good way–perfectly suited to the Lightning McQueen era of NASCAR). That warmed-over Impala looks nice and everything, but seriously, wtf? They think running a Camaro in NASCAR would be bad for the brand? Unbelievable.

In any case, the new cars are in final testing at Talladega Superspeedway today, and will be run in four races during the 2010 Nationwide Series, beginning at Daytona in July. NASCAR hopes to have the hot new Nationwide rides fully integrated into the series by the 2011 season. Check out a whole gallery of new Nationwide rides below the jump, and read the press release at egmcartech.

Continue reading "NASCAR: Challenger Is A Go For Nationwide Series, But Not Camaro" »

By Jen Dunnaway

Editor

With the Car of Tomorrow redesign underway in NASCAR’s second-tier Nationwide Series, there’s been a lot of wild-ass speculation about whether the Big Three might seize the opportunity to introduce their newest crop of pony cars to stock car racing. It’s not as far-fetched as you might think: there were those CoT prototypes tested last year at Richmond, Ford has all but committed at least some version of its Mustang to run in Nationwide, and the mags and the blogs have been mulling over the idea for months. Two main threads within the CoT development discussion include 1. the importance of running a car that’s closer to “real” cars available at the showroom, and 2. the idea that the car would be different enough from Sprint Cup’s CoT that Sprint Cup drivers would have no particular advantage in the series–so in other words, you wouldn’t have to watch Carl Edwards and Kyle Busch win the race on cruise control weekend after weekend, with the rookies whom Nationwide is supposed to serve bringing up the rear of the pack. I think the racing of factory-based Mustangs, Camaros, and Challengers would not only be awesome, but it’d give the ailing Nationwide series the shot in the arm it needs: it could finally be cool in its own right, rather than a little-brother series to Sprint Cup and a lazy playground for already-established NASCAR champs. Check out Murray Pfaff’s rendering from the October 2009 issue of Hot Rod, which, apart from the fact that it depicts the supposed Nationwide cars in Sprint Cup sponsorship regalia, gives a pretty good idea of what Detroit’s pony cars might look like racing side-by-side on the track. The whole thing kind of begs the question, though: what’s Toyota supposed to run?