Ford Motorsports announced Tuesday that its Mustang model will make its NASCAR debut in 2010. It’ll be the first time the Mustang brand has competed in NASCAR and the first Ford coupe in the Nationwide Series since the 1997 Thunderbird. The new Mustang will be coordinated with NASCAR’s transition of the Nationwide Series’ cars to the “Car of Tomorrow” platform. The platform will be nearly identical to that currently used in the Sprint Cup division, however the plan is to use different body styles in the Nationwide Series.

NASCAR expects to phase in the new car over 5 or 6 races in the 2010 season before employing the car full-time in 2011. The Chevrolet, Dodge and Toyota manufacturers have not officially announced which model they intend to submit for the new car design, however Dodge is rumored to propose its Challenger brand for 2010. NASCAR is interested in differentiating body styles from its highly-criticized Sprint Cup COT. According to a release made available from NASCAR.com, the new Nationwide car will sport a rear spoiler (rather than a wing) and a spring front suspension (rather than bump stops).  The front splitter will apparently carry over from the Sprint Cup COT.

Ford Motorsports claims the Mustang has accumulated over 2,000 professional race victories. The fifth-generation Ford Mustang has enjoyed success in the KONI Challenge, SCCA Speed World Challenge and Formula Drift events. Ford has competed in the NASCAR Nationwide Series since its inception in 1982 under various brand names: Fairmont (1982-1986), Mercury Cougar (1984), Thunderbird (1987-1997), Taurus (1998-2005), and Fusion (2006-Present).

Click here to read the press release from Ford Racing.

Here’s my take on it: I think this is a great step in the right direction for NASCAR and the car manufacturers.  It seems that NASCAR is taking a conservative approach with the new car’s debut; I think they could have been more aggressive though.  While it’s certainly an improvement over the Sprint Cup COT — “let’s just put headlight decals on the thing and pretend it’s a stock car” — they could have gone a little further and allowed a more stock body and — dare I say — allowed the various makes to have different downforce numbers.

Why not take the guts of the COT platform (e.g., the frame, etc.) and throw a fully stock body on top of it?  Drop in a front valence and rear spoiler for safety and then let them drive it.  No headlight decals allowed.  Whoever builds the better car wins.  And it would be great to have something that handles dramatically different than the Sprint Cup cars to throw those drivers for a loop.  Let the manufacturers duke it out for a little added drama.

We’ll see how it goes.  It has to be better than the Fusion.

Tim Tuttle at SI.com, citing “multiple sources”, is reporting that Kevin Harvick is asking out of his contract with Richard Childress Racing (RCR) after this season. Harvick has another year remaining on the contract, but according to the report he is looking to move over to Stewart-Haas Racing, perhaps taking sponsor Shell/Pennzoil with him.

RCR has had a poor season so far in 2009 and Harvick is mired back in 25th in the point standings, pretty much putting him out of contention for the championship. Meanwhile Tony Stewart has had a remarkable season with his new team, posting fifteen Top-10s and two wins. Stewart leads the driver standings by 175 points over Jeff Gordon. The NASCAR Sprint Cup season passed the halfway point after Sunday’s race at Chicagoland.

Harvick stepped into the RCR #29 team after Dale Earnhardt was fatally injured at Daytona in 2001. The team changed numbers from 3 to 29 out of respect for Earnhardt. In just his third start for the team, Harvick posted his first win in a photo finish at the Atlanta race in March.

Harvick has not won a Sprint Cup race since the 2007 Daytona 500.