NASCAR‘s 2013 Cup car is expected to take to the track in June for the first time in a move which will give manufacturers competing more of a brand identity.
“We’ll be in the wind tunnel over the next 30, 45 days with the new prototypes as we do our evaluations on the submission cars, parts and pieces,” Robin Pemberton, NASCAR’s vice president for competition said.
“Everybody seems to be pretty far along, and the changes that will come out of those will be based on parity due to the wind-tunnel numbers. We’re optimistic that there will be some real race cars on race tracks probably in the second quarter this year doing some evaluation runs, if not before then.”
NASCAR president Mike Helton praised the cooperation between the manufacturers who with the sanctioning body gave the go ahead for the redesign.
“Never before, I think, has there been such a collaborative effort between NASCAR and the automobile manufacturers that are involved in our sport to start from the ground up and design a race car that they participate in the design of,” Helton said.
“And we regulate it so that there’s a level playing field across the board. And the energy level that came from that, from the manufacturers and all of them sitting in a room together to create what we’ll begin to see unfold in 2012 and see on the race track in ’13, I think is pretty remarkable, and certainly a sign of the time.”
