The team will continue to field Ford Fusions with power from Roush-Yates Engines.

Team owner Bob Jenkins said:

 You often see a lot of young teams going through a lot of changes trying to make it in the Sprint Cup Series. We’ve been fortunate that we’ve had a lot of stable partners, people who believe in our approach and are seeing year-to-year improvements as a result of that approach. David Gilliland has been a rock for us for three years and David Ragan brought race-winning experience to us last year and returns for 2013. That stability is huge for a young, developing team, and I know we’ll continue to improve and have even better results this upcoming season.

Jay Guy will return as crew chief of the No. 34 FRM team with Ragan behind the wheel. Meanwhile Derrick Finley will return as crew chief for Gilliland and the No. 38 team.

No word yet on who will be crew chief for Josh Wise, and the No. 26 team.

The No. 34 team will be sponsored by Margaret Holmes Peanut Patch for four races in 2013, while the MDS Transport will sponsor the No 26 team.

The No. 22 was driven by AJ Allmendinger in the first 17 Sprint Cup races of the season, before he was suspended for failing a random drug test. Sam Hornish took over for the remainder of the season.

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The team will also continue its deals with Roush Fenway Racing and Roush-Yates Engine.

The team still plans to field two Cup teams and a Nationwide team. RPM is working on re-signing Aric Almirola and Ambrose. Michael Annett should be back in the No. 43 N’Wide entry.

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Jamie Allison of Ford said:

All the pieces are in place. We’re working on giving them the tools so they can be competitive. It’s all going to work. … We’re very close. We’re about there.

With the addition of Penske Racing to the Ford camp, there is some concern that organizations like RPM will lose some of their resources because those resources will now go to Penske.

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Chevrolet unveiled its 2013 Nationwide Series entry: the Camaro SS. The car will make its debut in February at Daytona International Speedway.

It will compete against the Dodge Challenger and the Ford Mustang in the series.

The car has not been on track, it was completely designed based on mathematical calculations of aerodynamic targets using computer assisted design.

Jim Campbell, vice president, Chevrolet Performance Vehicles and Motorsports said:

Chevrolet is proud to bring the Camaro to the NASCAR Nationwide Series in 2013. The Camaro Nationwide race car incorporates many of the distinctive styling elements of the production Camaro, including the unique power-bulge hood and deep recessed grille. In addition, the design incorporates the distinctive halo light rings and dual-port grille appearances, and the gold bowtie.

Pat Suhy, of the Chevrolet Racing Oval Track Group, added:

Our team of Chevrolet designers and aerodynamic engineers did a fantastic job capturing the great looks and styling cues of the production Camaro, while providing our NASCAR Nationwide teams with a highly competitive aero platform. For the remainder of 2012, our engineers will be busy working with our Chevy teams on wind tunnel and on-track testing to fine-tune the car in preparation for next year. It will be great to see Camaro compete on the track against its showroom competition starting with the 2013 season opener at Daytona.

Chevy is also working on a new model for the Sprint Cup Series that will be branded the SS. No word has been given as to when that vehicle will be unveiled.

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Roush Fenway Racing

Jack Roush said in a press release:

Ricky Stenhouse Jr. has more than proved his abilities on the race track.  We feel that he is not only a key piece of our team’s future, but a key piece of the future of the sport.  Roush Fenway is an organization with a wonderful past and present, as well as an extremely promising future, and I can’t think of a better candidate than Ricky to usher in the next era of success for the team.

He added:

Of course, I’d like to thank Matt Kenseth for his many years of loyal service. Matt has been an integral part of this organization for well over a decade, and we are extremely appreciative of his accomplishments and contributions to the team, and will always consider him a part of the Roush Fenway family.

There has been no word on where Kenseth will end up by ESPN speculated that Kenseth could be headed to Joe Gibbs Racing, which could elect not to re-sign Joey Logano, or could start a fourth team for Kenseth, or he could be headed to Penske Racing, which is switching from Dodge to Ford in 2013. 

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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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Dodge is set to unveil its 2013 Dodge Charger for use in the Sprint Cup Series on March 11th. The problem is that with Penske’s decision, no big teams will field Dodges next season. Robby Gordon Motorsports is the only team that fields Dodges besides Penske.

Murstein said:

We received calls from several manufacturers today asking if they could meet with us. It seems that while sponsorship is down, car manufacturer support is strong. That is probably due to the fact that the car companies are all doing significantly better these days than a few years ago. Thus Petty has been approached by several manufacturers recently.

Back in 2001, Petty Enterprises fielded Dodges for John Andretti. They switched from Pontiacs when Dodge returned to Sprint Cup competition. The team fielded Dodges until the end of 2008, when the team merged with Gillett Evernham Motorsports and became RPM. Less than a year later, RPM merged with Yates Racing and began fielding Fords. Their contract with Ford is up at season’s end.

Murstein also dropped one more interesting tidbit:

What’s interesting is that  while there are the usual suspects there is one new manufacturer that is trying to break into the sport.

Honda has been rumored to be considering breaking into NASCAR, though there is nothing to indicate any truth to that rumor.

Penske switched from Fords to Dodges in 2003, after Dodge returned to the sport. That year, Ryan Newman won eight races in a Penske Dodge. He went on to win three more times in Dodges, while his teammate Rusty Wallace won once in a Penske Dodge in 2004. Kurt Busch won 10 times in Penske Dodges, while Keselowski has won three times. 

If this news is confirmed, Robby Gordon Motorsports would be the only team fielding Dodges in the Sprint Cup Series. Derricke Cope was rumored to be starting a team that would field Dodges, but nothing concrete has come through.

This news comes 10 days before Dodge planned to unveil their 2013 Dodge Charger for use in Cup competition.

Update: Penske confirmed the news with an announcement.

Mark Fields, Ford’s president of The Americas said:

This is an historic day for our racing program, and we are thrilled to see another member of the extended Ford family coming back. Working together with Penske Racing gives Ford another championship-level program, and we are excited to take our racing program to all-new levels.

Roger Penske added:

We look forward to joining the Ford Racing NASCAR program beginning in 2013. We appreciate the long-term commitment that Ford has made to Penske Racing and for their continued support of the sport.

According to AutoWeek.com, Ford designers took center stage in the development of this model.

In previous years, race teams built and designed Cup cars. For example, Penske Racing and Roush Fenway Racing designed the Ford Taurus that debuted in the series in 1998. This time around, NASCAR worked with the automakers’ designers to give the cars more brand identity.

Andy Slankard, of Ford Racing, said:

This time, we have had the luxury of support from the Ford Design Center to give us these sleek shapes and new look. Only designers could do that, not a bunch of engineers or race-car guys.

Garen Nicoghosian, who is heading up the Design Center portion of the Cup Fusion redesign, said:

There is a size difference between the production [car] and the race car, and the proportions are so different. The street Fusion is a front-wheel-drive, front-engine car and [the] race car is a front-engine, rear-wheel-drive car with a really long hood and a much lower and wider stance. The fundamentally different profiles and proportions of the two vehicles, as well as other constraints, presented a bigger challenge than simply taking a Fusion and putting NASCAR stickers on it. … We paid close attention to the way we shaped the details on the racer, such as the headlight, grille and fog-light openings, as well as the body-side sections, character lines and overall surface language. When parked side by side, the racer and the street car “feel” the same, even though the two share no common surfaces.

Slankard added:

I think this is a nice, sporty version of the Fusion, and a lot of people will be excited about it.