NASCAR Sprint Cup teams to test 2013 car Wednesday at Homestead

[Golden Taters]

CHARLOTTE – The 2012 season hasn’t begun, but the first on-track test for the 2013 car will take place Wednesday at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

NASCAR officials confirmed a private test “next month” and did not deny that it’s next week on the 1.5-mile oval where NASCAR conducts its season finale.

Teams from Joe Gibbs Racing (Toyota), Roush Fenway Racing (Ford), Penske Racing (Dodge) and Hendrick Motorsports (Chevrolet) will each bring one car for the test.

“It will be just a shakedown test for everybody just to get some laps,” NASCAR Vice President of Competition Robin Pemberton said Thursday during the Sprint Media Tour. “These are legitimate, full-on race cars. We will look and see and get some driver feel and driver opinions about that.”

Teams didn’t want to talk about the test because NASCAR is keeping the test private. Chevrolet has not released what model its race car will be – and it hasn’t released the street version of the car yet as well.

Dodge will campaign with the Charger, Toyota will field the Camry and Ford already introduced its Fusion earlier this week.

“We wanted to reach out to NASCAR and maintain the great competition that goes on the track and bring back a little bit of that lust, the fun, the excitement that fans have for cars and watching those cars race,” Ford Racing Director Jamie Allison said earlier this week.

The roof, deck lid, front fascia and the area around the wheel wells will be the same while the quarter windows, side panels, door sides, quarter panels and fenders will be brand identifiable, much like the cars currently used in the Nationwide Series.

“The Nationwide Series was a fantastic preview into what happens when you make [it look like] a street car and you look at the attention that series has gotten and how interesting it’s become and how the drivers talk about the look of the car,” said Chrysler Street and Racing Technology Brand CEO Ralph Gilles.

“The impact will be the same. It will allow us to probably market this car to maybe non-traditional NASCAR fans. Right now, the car, other than the graphics, is not so discernable as a Dodge Charger. It’s all positive.”

NASCAR had two cars in the wind tunnel Tuesday and two more Thursday, Pemberton said.

Manufacturers must submit the final car for approval by Sept. 1, although NASCAR likely will have them before then. Pemberton said he does not expect any major changes from the way the cars look today to the final approved cars.

“The cars won’t be exact [until] we get done tuning on them,” Pemberton said. “It’s just to get one test behind us [next week]. Unless you had all these iterations where you could see headline angles change in order to get the [wind tunnel] numbers right, you’d never even know.”

There are also plans to have public tests at some point in the year.

“There will be testing in mid- to late summer,” Pemberton said. “We should be in a good position to release our cars and have a good rule package for the 2013 season. It's certainly a milestone in our sport, and we've worked very hard and closely with the manufacturers on the new car and the four new models that are simply outstanding, and I think everybody will be impressed with them.

“I think the fans are going to love them. It's going to be such a positive step in helping our race cars be more and more relevant to our fans, past, present and future.”

The 2013 car will be used in all races starting with the 2013 Daytona 500.

http://www.scenedaily.com/news/arti..._to_test_2013_car_Wednesday_at_Homestead.html


Very anxious to finally see what Chevy has up their sleeves. I'm glad NASCAR is doing this, I hate the "Car of Tomorrow".