There are always lots of fun things to see and do at Ford Championship Weekend at Homestead-Miami Speedway. Including gazing into the future.

Last year, you may recall, Ford’s Fusion Hybrid debuted as a pace car during Ford Championship Weekend, and this year fans of the Blue Oval will be able to feast their eyes on something new and tantalizing for 2010: The Ford Mustang NASCAR Nationwide Series Car of Tomorrow.

Beginning in four NASCAR Nationwide races next season, the most famous nameplate in Ford history will return to NASCAR competition, as the Mustang will begin racing again. And in 2011, the Mustang will run the full Nationwide schedule.

But you don’t have to wait until next year. This weekend at Homestead, Ford and Roush Fenway Racing will publicly demonstrate the Mustang for the first time on the track, as Colin Braun’s No. 6 Con-Way Freight Nationwide car takes to the 1.5-mile Homestead track in South Florida.

“We had been talking with NASCAR for some time about Mustang as part of its vision for a muscle car rollout for the Nationwide Series,” says Brian Wolfe, director of Ford North America Motorsports. “We both saw it as a way of differentiating the series from Sprint Cup. We loved the idea. I think race fans – and Mustang loyalists - will be very pleased.”

The new Nationwide car will be built on the existing NASCAR Sprint Cup COT chassis and the greenhouse area will be identical, but from there it will be very different. At the rear will be a conventional blade spoiler instead of a wing; the front end will have a shorter, non-adjustable splitter. The front suspension will be conventional coil springs and shock absorbers instead of the bump stops the Cup teams loathe, the decklid and the front of the body will be moved 2.5-inches forward.

The car will also have more aerodynamic drag built in, and will be designed to be easier to drive than the current Cup car, and harder to drive than a NASCAR Camping World Truck Series vehicle. Speaking of the trucks, the new Nationwide car will have the identical engine package that the trucks do now, which will be a first.

“Everybody knows what a Ford Mustang is because that’s what they started out racing,” said Ricky Stenhouse Jr., who like Braun will campaign Nationwide Fords for Roush Fenway next season. “I think all of the fans think of a Ford Mustang as a race car and it’s raced ever since the first one was made, so I’m glad we’re getting the chance to run it in NASCAR. It looks like a good race car and they’ve done a really good job with the design. It really resembles a production Mustang.”

“My teams have won several road racing championships over the years in Mustangs, and I look forward to winning more with Colin, Carl (Edwards) and Ricky,” said Roush Fenway Racing co-owner Jack Roush. “With the continued support of Ford and Con-way Freight we plan to give Colin the opportunity for his second Rookie of the Year title in NASCAR, and ultimately a Nationwide Series championship.” 

The 2010 Ford Mustang NASCAR Nationwide Series car will perform a series of exhibition Saturday at Homestead-Miami Speedway prior to the start of the season-ending Ford 300, which is scheduled for 4:30 p.m. ET.