Garen Nicoghosian, the Ford design manager in charge of the NASCAR project, said:

We had an opportunity to add more personality and detail to the race car. We took advantage of this opportunity and sculpted a more aggressive front end and we added grille bars that are identical in design to the production car. We also added more detail to the fog light housings, and created a more detailed headlight area as well. In addition, we also sculpted a more aggressive hood, and were able to achieve a closer look to the production car. Our race car is even closer in design to the production car now, and we are very pleased with the results.

Ford unveiled its 2013 Sprint Cup Fusion in January. Since then, Dodge and Toyota have each unveiled their designs. Chevy, which is switching from the Impala to the SS — a completely new model (thought it will be based off of the Holden Commodore/Pontiac G8 according to rumors), has yet to unveil their entry.

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To be an approved pace car, a car must be able to reach a speed close to 100 mph from the standy-by position near the end of pit road to the exit of turn 2.

This isn’t the first time NASCAR used a hybrid pace car. A hybrid Ford Fusion was used in the Sprint Cup series finale last year, the Ford 400 from Homestead-Miami Speedway. But, that car only paced the start of the race because it did not meet performance standards.

In the New York Times Wheels blog, Robert Peele writes that history suggests that Toyota’s announcement “may have been another salvo” in Ford and Toyota’s “continuing war of words.”

Peele points to the fact that Toyota disputed Ford’s claim  earlier this year, “that its Fusion hybrid was the most fuel-efficient midsize vehicle, saying that the Prius, which boasts significantly higher mileage, also was a midsize car.”

He also noted that “Ford accused Toyota of cheating in its cargo space measurements for the Sequoia sport utility vehicle, using a different measuring standard than Ford had used for its almost identically sized Expedition.”

Toyota did share hybrid technology with Ford five years ago, but after that Ford accused Toyota “of using its influence to limit Ford’s access to suppliers of hybrid technologies.”

But three laps into the Shelby 427, Kenseth was on pit road with engine trouble, his team trying desparately to diagnose and fix the problem. By lap 6, his potentially historical day ended in a plume of white smoke from the rear of his USG Sheetrock Ford Fusion. He finished dead last, and dropped from first to third in points.

Kenseth’s Sunday performance just goes to show that no matter how invincible a driver seems at a given time, he can be knocked right back into mortality by factors beyond his control.

No one knows this better, perhaps, than Kyle Busch. Last season, Busch was the hottest driver in the sport, winning more than 20 races in NASCAR’s top three series. But, in the Chase, he stumbled, bumbled, and fumbled his way to an 10th place finish. 

In a sport where talent and ability can take a back seat to quality of equipment and a little bit of luck, we’ve all learned that no one is invincible.