Nationwide going the Pony Car Route - Real Soon!

A couple of years back NASCAR unveiled plans to take the Nationwide’s car and follow along with the Sprint Cup car move to a redesigned COT, but this time they wanted to change the manufacturer’s models to what we affectionately refer to as the “Pony Cars”. Ford and Dodge have followed right along, developing a Mustang and Challenger version respectively. Chevrolet and Toyota, most likely due to financial restraints, have drug their feet and stuck with their Sprint Cup car frames. It was hoped that Chevy would come out with a Camaro, but will run an Impala SS version instead, while Toyota sticks to the Camry (Has Toyota ever marketed what we would call a “Pony Car”?).

The template Pony Car shell

We will get to watch these new cars in action when they make their debut at Daytona International Speedway on July 2nd. The new Ford and Dodge cars, along with the Chevy and Toyota Nationwide versions of the Impala and Camry will appear in just four points races during the balance of the 2010 Nationwide. Besides their debut at Daytona, look for them on Aug. 14th at Michigan International Speedway, Sept. 10th at Richmond International Raceway and Oct. 23rd at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
May 18th over 25 teams ran their versions of the Nationwide Pony Cars at Daytona and it was readily apparent there are many problems to be resolved prior to the July 2nd debut.

Recognize the Mustang?

Read about the trials in Lee Spencer’s article at FoxSport.com:
http://msn.foxsports.com/nascar/story/NASCAR-pony-cars-get-ready-for-prime-time-debut-Lee-Spencer

One thing that stuck out concerning the Daytona test trials; the cars are evidently going to be slower than the Sprint Cup cars.

Did you know that last weekend in Dover the Nationwide cars ran faster than the Sprint Cup cars in qualifying?

Do you think the new Nationwide cars are purposefully being designed to slow them down?

Finally, it’s too bad we have to contend with today’s economy. I suppose we’ll get to see the Chevrolet Camaro compete with the Mustang and Challenger down the road since GM backed off on the development costs.

There's your Challenger, klvalus!

Toyota's Supra concept car...

Tez found this shot of a Toyota Celica concept car.