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"Just prior to the 2012 Sprint Cup season, Ford took the wraps off its new 2013 Fusion stock car, which will bring brand identity back into NASCAR&amp;#039;s top series by mirroring many of the changes seen on the new 2013 Ford Fusion production car recently unveiled at Detroit. Although its sleeker windshield, fastback roofline and shorter rear deck make this new Fusion look more aerodynamic than the Fusion-branded NASCAR Car of Tomorrow it will replace in 2013, Ford says it has the same levels of drag and downforce as the current car.   &amp;quot;We wanted the Fusion to be the car that helped return `stock car&amp;#039; to NASCAR,&amp;quot; stated Jamie Allison, director, Ford Racing. &amp;quot;I think it&amp;#039;s going to reengage fans with the sport, and make the sport better, because there is just something natural about seeing race cars that look like the cars in their driveways.&amp;quot;   The folks at Ford Design, together with Ford aerodynamicist Bernie Marcus, spent much of 2011 doing the early development work on the car, allowing the Blue Oval&amp;#039;s race teams to concentrate on their NASCAR races. The goal was to have the new racer reflect the proportions of the 2013 production Fusion, plus fit it with an immediately identifiable grille.   All told, it&amp;#039;s a job well done. And even though the 2013 Fusion remains a CoT beneath the skin, NASCAR has begun moving away from common body templates in the interest of improved brand identity. The manufacturers have been able to convince NASCAR that as long as the wind tunnel numbers are the same, the templates don&amp;#039;t need to be identical, which would allow the automakers to work within the rules to produce cars\u2014such as the Ford Mustang in the Nationwide series\u2014that look a lot more like their street counterparts. A good thing, we say.   Development of the new NASCAR Fusion will continue throughout 2012. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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