Ford Racing welcomed Penske Racing back along with Roush Fenway Racing at test of its' Gen 6 Sprint Cup Fusion at Talladega Superspeedway recently.
Here's what how driver, Sam Hornish Jr., and Mike Nelson reacted to the new car. Penske had previously entered Fords in Sprint Cup Racing from 1994 to 2002 before switching to Dodge. The return to Ford was announced in March.
"Ford probably did the best job in terms of what NASCAR wanted," said Hornish who drives in the Nationwide Series for Penske. "NASCAR gave them the opportunity to give their race car a little bit more of the look of the actual street car. If you basically slinked up your car and made it into a street race car, this is what it could look like. I think they did a really good job of that and bringing out the character of the car." Vice President of Operations for Penske Racing, Mike Nelson, agreed and said, "We're excited about the Fusion and the way it looks. There's a lot of buzz about it in the garage and in the shop, so it's been good so far. It means a lot to the fans and it means a lot to us as well. It's nice to be able to look at the street car and look at the race car and see the similarities between the two. They're identical and it's cool for everyone." While product identity is the key to the Gen 6 car it still has to be competitive as a key engineer points out. "It's been a challenge to get all the correct features in the car within the design parameters and still having the car competitive," said Ford Racing aerodynamicist Bernie Marcus. "At the end of the day you can have the best-looking car, but if it doesn't work on the track, that's not going to be good so we have to have both. We have to have the looks and the performance." The first race for the new cars will be NASCAR's most storied race the Daytona 500 in February. The next test for superspeedway cars will be Jan. 10-12 at Daytona International Speedway.
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