Fast Friday | NASCAR Cup 2019 Mustang

Drifting the NASCAR Mustang

Ford Performance introduced its 2019 Mustang that will contest the upcoming NASCAR Cup Series in a video shot at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

In the video, Monster Energy NASCAR Cup champ Joey Logano drifts a modified NASCAR Mustang equipped with a handbrake in tandem with the Formula Drift series Mustang RTR of driver Vaughn Gittin Jr.

Video | Joey Logano Drifts With Vaughn Gittin Jr.

At the end of the video, there is a third Mustang in a three-car donut burn-out. The third driver is Gittin’s teammate Chelsea DeNofa, who is a Ford RTR Mustang driver in the Formula Drift series.

Another point of interest is that Logano was new to the technique of drifting, so Gittin played the role of teacher for this video.

“Drifting door to door in the new Roval infield at Charlotte Motor Speedway with Joey behind wheel of the new 2019 NASCAR Mustang was a wild and fun experience,” said Gittin. “I have never seen a driver from another (racing) discipline take to drifting like Joey did. After a bit of instruction, he was linking turns and I was comfortable to get superclose.”

The Cup-level Mustang is the result of collaboration between NASCAR, Ford Performance and design teams and NASCAR teams that field entries for Ford. The Mustang has a long history in racing. Its first race was in 1964, when it was a surprise winner of the Tour de France Automobile, a 10-day, 4,000-mile suffer fest. The Mustang has also competed in SCCA, Trans-Am, IMSA, NHRA, Formula Drift and NASCAR Xfinity (since 2011). But it has never competed at NASCAR’s highest level. That will change when it debuts in the Daytona 500 on February 17, 2019.