Toyota debuted its remodeled Camry that it will race next season, and the street version was the designated pace car for the Sprint Cup race at Charlotte Motor Speedway on Saturday night.
In doing so, the automaker became the first manufacturer to move to an updated version of its race car. It closely resembles the 2015 Camry consumers can purchase themselves, according to the Associated Press.
In 2013, Chevrolet, Ford and Toyota all unveiled race cars that closely resembled the showroom versions.
The biggest change to the NASCAR version of the 2015 Camry is an aggressive front end and grille area, which looks like its production equivalent.
The new vehicle also boasts an all new, sleek hood and nose, according to the Associated Press. The quarter windows also gives the vehicle a sleeker look.
"Definitely the 2015 Camry race car has benefited from a cosmetic standpoint from the stance that the 2015 production Camry is perfect - the front end, the aggressive, wide-mouth look is just perfect for this race car," said Andy Graves, vice president of chassis engineering & Toyota NASCAR program manager, according to the AP.
Toyota has limited to time to get the car on track before its debut at Daytona in February due to a recent ban on individual team testing means.
The company has tests scheduled during the next month in Phoenix, Fontana and Charlotte.
"Because of that, it really makes it look another level of detail closer to the production car. As soon as we saw the photos from Toyota and (design group) Calty of what the '15 production car was going to look like, we were ecstatic because we knew it was really going to look great on the race track," Graves said.
Joe Gibbs Racing and Michael Waltrip Racing currently fields five combined Toyota entries.
It will expand to six next season when Joe Gibbs Racings adds Carl Edwards to the team.
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