The 2013 Ford Fusion race car gets painted up for battle

The 2013 Ford Fusion stock car shown on the right sports the red and white #21 Motorcraft livery of the Woods Brothers racing team that has been familiar to NASCAR fans since the days of David Pearson back in the 1970s. Like the current #21 Ford Fusion stock car piloted by Trevor Bayne, this Woods Brothers car is sponsored by both Ford’s replacement parts division Motorcraft and Quick Lane Tire & Auto Center but unlike the car that Bayne will drive in this weekend’s Coca Cola 600 – this car is made of clay.

This 2013 Ford Fusion was created by the Ford Design Center in Dearborn and it is a full size clay replica of the new Fusion stock car that will take on the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series next season. The actual car probably won’t have the menacing black tinted (or painted, in this case) windows, the blacked out headlights (I would expect something designed to look a little more like production headlights) and the actual race car will likely have more small decals on the front fenders.

The fact that it is clay aside, the new #21 Motorcraft 2013 Ford Fusion shown on the right shows how well the folks at Ford Racing have taken the look of the production-ready 2013 Ford Fusion sedan and applied it to the coupe-shaped NASCAR stock car. While the side window opening is obviously shortened to accommodate for the shorter wheelbase and different greenhouse design, the upper body line and accentuated wheel openings of the road car are transferred into the race car. The new upright front end of the 2013 Fusion production car has been carried over beautifully in the new NASCAR race car. The greenhouse (windshield, roofline, rear window) of the race car is similar in design to the production car and while the back end is similar – the NASCAR rear end design is far more upright and angular than the road car.

After making its debut with the #21 Wood Bros livery at the Roush Fenway Fan Day in Concord, this full sized clay model of the 2013 Ford Fusion stock car will spend the weekend in a Ford display at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Beyond this weekend, the #21 Fusion clay car will tour the country with the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series to build anticipation for the debut of the new race car next season.