There was a time, when NASCAR's brightest stars weren't the guys in the driver's seat but the cars they drove to Victory Lane.
Richard Petty changed all that, his larger-than-life persona giving the fledgling sport a national presence 40 years ago and paving the way for the likes of Dale Earnhardt Sr. and Jimmie Johnson to hog center stage while the cars were relegated to secondary roles.
NASCAR will start swinging the pendulum back the other way when the Nationwide Series' revamped car makes its debut at Daytona on Friday. It's a welcome move long overdue said Jamie Allison, Ford's director of North American motorsports.
``We have gone through an era where obviously it was a manufacturer's battle, and then gone to an era where the drivers were the stars,'' he said. ``Now we are entering an era where the cars are the stars, and I think it's good for the sport.''
Ford (Mustang), Dodge (Challenger), Toyota (Camry) and Chevrolet (Impala) will all have their respective versions of the new car on display Friday, the first of four races for the new car this season before it becomes fully integrated in 2011.
Officials are quick to point out the new rides are not to be confused with the Car of Tomorrow, a moniker bestowed upon the safe but somewhat clunky platform currently used in the Cup Series.
Maybe that's because what Nationwide is using is really the Car of Yesterday.
Save for the paint job, the Dodge Challenger that series points leader Brad Keselowski will take to the track on Friday looks like the one found on the sales floor at your neighborhood dealer. Same goes for the Mustang, which will have the familiar silver pony logo on the grille.
Though the makeovers given to the Camry and Impala are more subtle, the new designs are a decided departure from the homogenized look NASCAR's two top series have adopted in recent years, where sometimes the only way to tell a car's manufacturer is to catch a glimpse of the sticker on the hood.
``The cars look very sexy,'' said Keselowski. ``They look like a production car you always wanted to drive. Some of that has been lost over the last decade or so in NASCAR. ... We think this is going to be a big burst of energy for the sport.''
The cars feature many of the same safety characteristics of the Cup cars on the inside, namely the centering of the driver's seat. The body changes, however, allow the Nationwide Series to sell a distinct brand.
``It's given us the ability to kind of take a vision to give the Nationwide Series its own unique look and have our vehicle drive different than the other race cars that we see that race (in Cup),'' said Nationwide Series director Joe Balash.
The move also levels the playing field in the series. Testing in the new car has been limited. Keselowski doesn't see that as a problem. Of course, he has the benefit of holding a 247-point lead over Carl Edwards.
``You're just going to have to show up and figure it out on the fly,'' he said. ``It's kind of like back on the old days, where you'd have a Mario Andretti show up and get in the Sprint car after being in an Indy car.''
Cup star Kevin Harvick sees the new car as a chance to catch up to Kyle Busch.
Though Keselowski is running away with the points title, Busch has been dominant whenever he shows up to drive his No. 18 Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing. Busch has six wins in 13 starts this year, including last week in New Hampshire.
``The best part about it is that 18 car won't have those cars to race any more, so hopefully we can close that competition gap on the Nationwide side and close that up a little bit,'' Harvick said.
Longtime NASCAR owner Roger Penske thinks the redesigned car will make it easier for teams to cut costs while also attracting new investors.
``With the advanced chassis that you run (in Cup), having it be the same that we can run in Nationwide, you're going to have some of these cars that we might run on Sunday then can be sold or handed down to smaller teams,'' he said. ``I think that's a real advantage to get more people in the sport. We couldn't do (that) now because there's a difference.''
Above all, however, the new design has given the Nationwide Series some much-needed buzz while harkening back to the ``win on Sunday, sell on Monday'' model the sport was built on.
If one of the new cars wins this weekend, the exposure could be felt in the showroom a few days later. In the current economy, that's never a bad thing.
``There will be a spike (in interest) after the race,'' said Dodge president and CEO Ralph Gilles. ``And we will watch this weekend very carefully.''
