FIRST LOOK: 2019 FORD NASCAR MUSTANG FOR MONSTER ENERGY CUP SERIES

One day after the 10,000,000th Mustang rolled off the Ford Assembly line, Ford took the camouflage off its newest version of the Mustang — the one it plans to use in the 2019 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series.

Tony Stewart, a three-time Cup Series champion and current team owner in the series, did the honors by driving the Mustang from the Ford plant at Flat Rock, Michigan, nearly 20 miles to Ford headquarters in Dearborn. Stewart said it was the first time he was in a Cup car since retiring from the series at the end of the 2016 season.

The car was revealed to the media, NASCAR executives, Ford employees and the 13 current Ford NASCAR Cup drivers and their teams.

“To put the performance behind the car is important, but also to keep the awesome styling from the street car — to put that on the racetrack and keep the cars looking the same, keeping that badass look that the Mustang has, it’s exciting,” said Team Penske driver Joey Logano. “I can’t wait to drive a Mustang on the racetrack and ultimately pull it into a victory lane.”

Ford NASCAR Cup drivers check out the 2019 NASCAR Mustang and its street-car counterpart on Thursday in Dearborn.PHOTO BY FORD PERFORMANCE

While the Mustang has competed in several racing series, including the SCCA, Trans-Am, IMSA, NHRA, Formula Drift and NASCAR Xfinity (since 2011), this will be the first time for Mustang in the Cup Series. Ford currently runs the Fusion in the NASCAR Cup series, and it has found its way to victory lane nine times.

The new car will make its debut next February at the Daytona 500.

“Obviously, with Mustang there’s a lot of racing history,” said Mark Rushbrook, global director for Ford Performance motorsports. “But to be able to bring it to the highest level of NASCAR in Cup, we’re very excited about that and the connection it brings with all of the Mustang clubs and events like Woodward (Dream Cruise), Mustang Alley. The missions that we have in motorsports at Ford Performance, first and foremost, is we need to go win races and championships that matter, and we can do that now with the Mustang in the top level of our sport.

Although it already races in a lot of different places with the Mustang GT4 and in the NHRA in a couple different levels — we’re doing new Mustangs in those series as well. Next week, there will be a new Mustang Cobra Jet that gets unveiled associated with Woodward. We’ve got a new Mustang coming for NHRA Funny Car that will be unveiled later this year, and has Mustang has grown globally as a street car, and with Mustang GT4 road car, we’ve also announced earlier this year — and we will unveil later this year — a new Mustang for Australian Supercars. A lot of exciting news, coming near term, for the Mustang and a lot of new Mustangs coming in 2019.”