It’s official: the Ford Fusion is out and the Ford Mustang will be in for NASCAR, and not just in the Xfinity Series, either. The full-deal, top-tier Cup car will become the Ford Mustang for the 2019 season, replacing the soon-to-be-killed Fusion and bringing the Mustang versus Camaro rivalry straight to NASCAR. It’s a move that almost seems overdue…the Monte Carlo versus Thunderbird war was fun, the Monte Carlo versus egg-body Taurus was good, but Mustang versus Camaro? Ford hasn’t had that par of a rival on the roundy-round track since Chrysler slapped beaks and tails on their midsize two-doors to go chasing down some slope-nosed Torinos and Cyclones.

Look, we all know that it’s really just Mustang-shaped stickers on a typical NASCAR body. But NASCAR hasn’t been about the car so much as it’s been about marketing for…what, decades now? At least you can look at the car from fifty feet away and go, “Yep, Mustang…” and not be wrong. But you can see just how much more NASCAR needs to go to make some amends when you compare Joey Logano’s NASCAR machine against Vaughn Gittin, Jr.’s Formula Drift Mustang RTR.