MEXICO CITY -- NASCAR has yet to make a definitive announcement on the deployment of its "new car" in the Nationwide Series, but series director Joe Balash on Sunday said the car most likely would debut in the second half of 2009 on an "intermediate" racetrack.

"We have some options that we've been talking to the owners with based on the rollout schedule," Balash said. "And one of the options that's carrying some momentum is potentially releasing the car after August [2009] on the mile-and-a-half tracks.

"We're still full bore on our test schedule -- we're still testing this year and building cars and doing those types of things, but we're working with the garage on what the right deployment schedule is."

The only track-worthy prototype of the car that currently exists is in NASCAR's hands, but even it has not been on the racetrack.

"Right now, all the testing has been done in the wind tunnel as we work on the manufacturers' individual identity pieces," Balash said. "Once we complete that cycle, which is on schedule, then we'll go to the next phase, the second half of this year, with some testing on a short track and a mile-and-a-half track with the car."

Representatives from all four manufacturers said their prospective versions of the new car had also been in the Lockheed wind tunnel in Marietta, Ga., in conjunction with NASCAR.

The next key date is the July 1 deadline for 2009 model submissions; and all four manufacturers said they anticipated no trouble in meeting that date.

Of the four, only Toyota has announced its model for the 2009 Nationwide Series. Toyota program manager for the Craftsman Truck and Nationwide series, Laerte Zatta, said the manufacturer had decided to stick with the Camry that currently races in both the Sprint Cup and Nationwide series, but with a slight twist.

"NASCAR was looking for a pony car, or a car that's different than what we have on the Cup Series," Zatta said. "But we don't have a model that is very different. The Camry, Corolla and Avalon are very similar in design, so we decided to just go with the Camry.

"We were very open with NASCAR, because the other manufacturers were considering different models, but we don't have much option."

Zatta said the twist came with what he called "less restrictive body templates" for the Nationwide version of the car. Toyota, he said, formed the body molds for its submission car by stripping the trim off Zatta's wife's Camry.

"The detail is much more similar to a production car," Zatta said. "In fact, the original version had a license plate frame on the back, but the teams said it would give them trouble in putting on decals, so we removed it." (Continued)