BY TEAM FORD RACING CORRESPONDENT

Talladega, Ala. — As a father showing off his new child, team owner Jack Roush absolutely beamed while talking about the Ford Mustang he’ll field in four Nationwide Series races next year.

After that four-race test, NASCAR’s second-tier series will race dramatically different cars for the full 2011 season. One car from each manufacturer is scheduled for a Monday test at Talladega.

Team Ford Racing will field Mustangs and Dodge will used Challengers, cornerstones of those manufacturers’ “pony car” heritage. But GM will stay with the Chevy Impala (instead of the Camaro) and Toyota with stay with the Camry. To say that Roush is delighted that Team Ford Racing will race a Mustang is a massive understatement.

“I’m happy because this gives me another chance to race the Mustang, which I’ve been racing for 40 years,” he said Saturday, when NASCAR unveiled the four cars at the cold and rainy Talladega Superspeedway. “To have the Mustang in the Nationwide Series is just a wonderful thing to me. I think it’ll bring excitement and interest to the series, and it’ll give us one more connection between the consumer and the dealerships.”

It was suggested that designing and building a new model from scratch for just four races next year must have been terribly expensive. Roush nodded, but said he’s not worried that NASCAR will change its mind and keep the current model cars for 2011 and beyond. The gradual phase-in, he explained, has its good and bad points.

“To make the change at once [going full-time in ’10, for example] is easier and less costly operationally, but you miss the chance to balance out the parts and pieces that are becoming obsolete,” he said. “There’s not a team in here rich enough to write off its inventory of equipment in one fell swoop and buy all new. There’s a human inefficiency in doing two things at one time; we’ll face that next year like we did when the Car of Tomorrow [in 2007] was introduced on a limited schedule.”

Given his druthers, Roush would have preferred more than just Daytona Beach in July, Michigan in August, Richmond in September and Charlotte in October. “The tracks we’re going to are okay, but my choice would have been about eight,” he said. “We get to see how these cars run on restricted and unrestricted superspeedways [Daytona Beach and Michigan], an intermediate track [Charlotte] and a short track [Richmond].

“I’d rather have done more than four, but not the full season. That’s because I’m reluctant to trash parts I’m not ready to trash and wreck cars I haven’t had a chance to wreck. We’d like a chance to wreck all those [Ford Fusions] before we have to retire ’em. There not a road race [among the four venues], but that’s alright—we’ll be able to adapt to that. The way they’re doing it gives us a better chance to use up the stuff we have before 2011.”

As for fans’ reaction to the new piece: “It’s been bigger than I expected, sort of an, ‘Oh, yeah, here we go’ deal,” Roush said, grinning broadly. “Fans have really accepted it warmly. It’s a big deal for enthusiasts my age and 10 years younger who remember what we’ve done with Mustangs through the years. This gives the Mustang fan clubs—and I think there are more of them than any other car club in America—another chance to rally around stock car racing. Some of them haven’t been avid fans, so NASCAR will pick up some television viewership and people in the stands because of this car.”

Roush couldn’t resist the offer to comment on Chevrolet’s decision to stay with its Impala instead of the Camaro. “We’ve enjoyed competing with and facing off against Dodge Challengers and Chevy Camaros everywhere we’ve raced except for NASCAR,” he said, picking his words carefully. “To see that Dodge has stepped up and Ford has stepped up, and then to see that Chevrolet has stepped—well, maybe sideways or maybe backward.

“I wouldn’t presume an answer here, but I’ll be surprised if they sell many more Impalas [than what’s in the showrooms] or generate any more interest based on not having to race the Mustang or the Challenger. It’s a shame the Camaro isn’t there. It has some striking line and would have been a boost to the Nationwide Series.”