HOMESTEAD, Fla. – As is tradition during NASCAR’s Championship weekend, executives representing the sport’s three manufacturers held a news conference to reflect on this year’s competition and share expectations on the season ahead.
One of the biggest talking points for 2018 was the debut of Chevrolet’s new Camaro ZL1 body to Cup competition and news that Ford will introduce its Mustang as its Cup body beginning in 2019.
Chevy’s Jim Campbell conceded it was disappointing not to have the carmaker’s drivers among the Championship 4 in Sunday’s Ford EcoBoost 400 championship race (3 p.m. ET on NBC, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), but he was optimistic that 2019 would reflect the progress teams have made with the new body.
Hendrick Motorsports driver Chase Elliott led the way, claiming three of Chevy’s four wins, including a career-first at Watkins Glen, N.Y., and two more during the Playoffs. Richard Childress Racing driver Austin Dillon gave the new Camaro its first victory in the season-opening Daytona 500.
“The trajectory of the season, not exactly what we wanted, but definitely heading in a better direction than in the front half of the season,” Campbell acknowledged. “When you bring a new car in and you have a changeover in drivers, those are big moments for manufacturers.
“More work to do, but looking forward to the rest of the weekend, the (Xfinity) race today, and I know there’s a few Chevy drivers that would love to perform great tomorrow in the race, but clearly tomorrow is about the Championship 4.”
Mark Rushbrook, Global Director of Ford Performance, said he anticipates realistic challenges when Ford begins fielding the new Mustangs as well. This season, his drivers accounted for 19 wins through the first 25 races. Two Ford drivers – Joey Logano and Kevin Harvick – will vie for the Cup championship on Sunday with Toyota drivers Kyle Busch and Martin Truex Jr.
“We’ve definitely seen what’s going on with the Chevrolet this year, and as Jim [Campbell] said, bringing anything new to the track is always a difficult challenge, whether it’s a new body or a new block for the engine or cylinder head or even a chassis component,” Rushbrook said, “So there’s no guarantees.”
“We realize that it’s going to be a learning curve, and again, using our advanced CFD tools, hopefully, we’ve gone through and got the best body that we can through the homologation process, the approval process.
“And since gaining that approval, we’ve been focused and it’s been the difficult challenge, right, to keep our tools and our people focused on delivering wins and a championship this year with the Fusion to send it out the right way, but also hopefully enough focus being paid to the new Mustang so that we can hit the track fast when we get on in Daytona in February.”
Source: Reid Spencer | NASCAR Wire Service
