2020 NASCAR Mustang Breaks Cover

Ford has all but reduced its definition of cars to one word: Mustang. That philosophy extends to the racing world as Ford has worked to replace its race car fleet with Mustangs. That continues with this week’s reveal of the 2020 NASCAR Xfinity Series Mustang race car which will start competing next February.

Ford Performance Motorsports now has Mustangs designed to compete in race series around the world including hot rods, stock cars, and endurance racers. When the 2015 Mustang went global, Ford Racing decided to go global with the pony car as well.

The 2020 Xfinity Series Mustang is the fifth new motorsports Mustang unveiled in the past year. It joins the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series, National Hot Rod Association Funny Car division, Virgin Australia Supercars Championship, and grassroots Cobra Jet. And all of them have racked up wins. The Mustang replaces a car for Xfinity Series that had not been updated since it debuted in 2010.

Development has been done by engineering and aerodynamics teams at the Ford Performance Technical Center in Concord, North Carolina, and their work is also being used by the automaker’s production vehicles such as the Ford GT and Shelby GT500. Innovation trickles down to other production cars including Shelby GT350 and ST models.

“We’ve always talked about Mustang being a car that was born to race, and it’s been gratifying to see it performing so well in multiple series around the world,” said Mark Rushbrook, global director, Ford Performance Motorsports. “It’s a credit to all of our engineers and teams that have worked so hard to make Mustang a championship contender right out of the box.”

Rushbrook unveiled the Xfinity Series NASCAR Mustang at an event on Woodward where cars have been cruising daily in the lead-up to the official Dream Cruise on Saturday that is expected to draw 1.5 million people who love automobiles.

In addition to the new motorsports Mustangs, Ford also competes with the Mustang GT4 in the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge Series in North America, and the FIA British GT4 Championship in Europe.

The relationship between Ford and NASCAR goes back to the 1950s, said Ben Kennedy, NASCAR managing director of racing operations and international development, who came to metro Detroit for the unveil. “We’re looking forward to seeing what the newest generation of the Mustang will do on the track,” Kennedy said.

Before the revealing of the all-new Xfinity Series Mustang, the previous Xfinity Mustang started racing full-time in 2011, winning the driver’s championship three times and the owner’s title on six occasions.

The new NASCAR Mustang will debut at the Daytona International Speedway on February 15.

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