Leveling the playing field in auto racing is a tricky business. Just ask the folks at Grand Am, World Challenge, FIA GT3 and others. NASCAR has been doing it for years with restrictor plates and spec body profiles. The impact, however, in their Sprint Cup Series, has been a generification of the cars, whose brand identity is established essentially by changing the headlight and grille decals.

The stock in stock cars is long gone, but new efforts could return a stronger brand identity to the series by 2013 and that has the auto manufacturers very interested.

John Darby, Sprint Cup Series director, told FOX Sports recently that, “We had really positive feedback when we released the new Nationwide cars this year. The fact that undeniably, the Dodge Challenger and the Ford Mustang are really good-looking race cars.”

Dodge President and CEO, Ralph Gilles

Development of the Nationwide cars has significantly improved safety – a strong priority of both fans and competitors that nobody wants to sacrifice.

“The fact is there’s a lot of design features and sculpturing and things that you can put into cars that aren’t aerodynamically sensitive enough to worry about. That’s where we’re headed now is really allowing the manufacturers to focus on those spots to bring out all the identity they can because that’s the value to the manufacturers,” confirmed Darby.

Earlier this year, Dodge President, Ralph Gilles, explained how the Nationwide Series fits with their Challenger marketing.

“When I reviewed the race at Daytona, I noticed a lot of the bumper shots and it was amazing to me to see the front end of the Challenger just fill that (TV) screen. We got a lot of great feedback from our fans through our website about how much they loved it. when I watch NASCAR the lineage isn’t quite as direct as I’d like it to be and I think the Nationwide Challenger brings that home. The fans at the end of the day are kings. When they respond like that, we pay attention big time.”

Increased interest in NASCAR racing will also benefit the series, which has seen a significant decline in attendance since 2008.