Racing past a NASCAR identity crisis

CONCORD – We want to see people on the race track who remind us of us. I wrote that Tuesday about Danica Patrick and haven’t changed my mind.

We also want to see cars on the race track that remind us of ours. Let’s say you drive a Chevrolet, Dodge or Toyota. You drive to work, to the grocery store and on every fourth Sunday to Aunt Mildred’s for a dinner you dread but can’t get out of.

Imagine seeing a car like yours in the Daytona 500. Instead of driving in rush hour on I-485, it drives straight to the finish line.

Remember how cool and distinctive race cars used to be? They might be tricked up and hollowed out. But the exterior was familiar. When your car won, you felt as if you did.

But Sprint Cup cars no longer look like street cars. They look like other race cars. There’s as much difference between a Chevrolet and a Dodge, between a Toyota and a Ford, as there is between golf shirts. They all look alike. And they’re kind of ugly.

This began to change Tuesday. Amid blasting guitars and flashing lights, Ford rolled out its Fusion race car in the Charlotte Motor Speedway garage.

If NASCAR announced that the No. 2 is now the official pencil of NASCAR there would be blasting guitars and flashing lights.

In this instance, Ford earned them.

The Fusion will make its debut at the 2013 Daytona 500.

“This looks like a sports sedan,” says Jamie Allison, director of Ford racing.

Allison stands behind the car, which Greg Biffle has just taken for a test run, and seems to fight the urge to drop to one knee.

“This is what a car looks like on the street,” Allison says.

I’ll be honest. I come from a Ford family. I grew up with them. But I never thought of a Taurus as a race car. I can see the Ford Thunderbird as a race car or the Mustang as a race car.

But a Taurus has been a car in which you drive Heather and Hunter to soccer practice. Taurus has been a car in which you drive the family to the all-you-can-eat buffet on Sunday afternoon. Taurus has been a sensible car for sensible people who know their role, and their role is the right lane.

The 2012, which Ford also brought to the garage Tuesday, is pretty cool. I don’t really know how to describe a car. The Taurus obviously has a distinctive Ford grille. I wondered how I knew that, and realized I read it in a press release.

I would add that the 2012 Taurus looks sharp and streamlined and – here we go – has a Saturday night quality about it. And I didn’t read that.

David Ragan, who drove a Ford for Roush Fenway last season and will drive a Ford for Front Row Racing this season, describes the race car as European. He points out that unlike a lot of drivers he pronounces European correctly.

Ragan grew up cheering for Robert Yates, Dale Jarrett and Ernie Irvan, all Ford racing stars.

“Fans have a relationship with the drivers, the teams and the sponsors,” Ragan says. “Now they can have a relationship with the cars again.”

Anything a sport can do to reduce the distance between athlete and fan is golden. And if it makes the drive to Aunt Mildred’s shorter, that’s golden too.

“Fans have a relationship with the drivers, the teams and the sponsors. Now they can have a relationship with the cars again.”

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