Lucas Bell 
As the Ford Mustang prepares to celebrate it’s 57th birthday this weekend, the Blue Oval is spending the week celebrating all things related to the iconic pony car. They announced earlier this week that the Mustang is once again the best-selling sports car in the world, and then they shared some info on the Level 2 autonomous vehicle software destined for the Mustang Mach-E. And while we all know and love the street-going variations of Mustang, Ford Performance has just released a teaser for their Next-Gen Mustang NASCAR ahead of its official debut on May 5. And yes, it does sound as glorious as you’re hoping. Will it preview the upcoming S650 Ford Mustang? We can only hope.
When the NASCAR Cup Series starts its next season in February of 2022, the field will be populated by a new crowd of vehicles. The Gen-7 cars, more simply called the Next-Gen NASCAR, represent quite the step on from the current machines. In an effort to reduce cost for teams and improve driver safety, the series has rethought the race cars from the ground up. They share a ton of parts from single-source suppliers, and feature a new carbon tub alongside the tube-frame chassis. The traditional four-speed gearbox has also been replaced by a six-speed sequential unit, and the car’s will feature an independent rear suspension for the very first time. In order to ensure the best racing possible, the Next-Gen NASCAR racers will also wear adjustable aerodynamics that include a rear splitter. Ford Performance’s Next-Gen Mustang NASCAR should be rather interesting then.
Ford says that they’ve spent thousands of hours working alongside NASCAR to develop their Next-Gen Mustang’s bodywork. We don’t get to see this new race car in Ford’s latest teaser clip, but we do get to hear the thing as it goes around Martinsville Speedway. The V8 under the hood was built for Ford Performance by the experts at Roush Yates, and it sounds about as good as any race car out there right now. Development of the project countries at Ford’s racing center in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Since 2019 the Mustang NASCAR has won 31 Cup Series events, with a season-high 18 race wins in 2020. That was enough to bring home the manufacturers’ championship for the Blue Oval, something they’ll want to repeat with the Next-Gen Mustang NASCAR in 2022. Be sure to tune into this Sunday’s NASCAR race at Richmond to witness as the Mach-E serves as the official pace car. There’s no better way to celebrate your most iconic V8-powered pony car than parading around an electric crossover, after all.
The next-generation S650 Ford Mustang muscle car is expected to debut by 2022, and could have a massive, 6.8L V8 engine under the hood. An electric Ford Mustang coupe is expected by the end of the decade.
