When Bill France first began the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series back in 1949, he not only helped auto racing gain popularity as a major American spectator sport but he embraced the use of stock cars. Since then, racing models have strayed farther from their production roots and have come to develop identities of their own.

While we at Dale Jarrett Ford love a good, speedy racecar as much as the next enthusiast, the original point of Sprint Cup was to give auto lovers a chance to see race variants of their street-legal cars hit the track. As Jamie Allison, Director of Ford Racing, puts it, "there is just something natural about seeing racecars that look like the cars in their (fans) driveways."¹

In order to bring stock car racing back to its origins and to increase brand identity, Ford has chosen a 2013 variant of the Ford Fusion for its next NASCAR Sprint Cup offering. Built to look extremely similar to its production-model twin, the 2013 Fusion NASCAR Spring Cup car will undergo testing before hitting the tracks at Daytona next year. Underneath the strongly-branded exterior, the Fusion race variant will hold a powerful V8 engine and will operate with rear-wheel drive.

While we can't send you soaring around an oval track here at Dale Jarrett Ford, 88 Dale Jarrett Blvd. Indian Trail, NC 28111-0189, we can set you up with the current 2012 Ford Fusion model. We promise the experience of driving a street-legal Fusion, or any other new Ford model, will be equally as exciting.

Source: ¹http://www.insideline.com/ford/fusion/2013/back-to-the-future-with-2013-nascar-fusion.html