Ford Is Getting A New NASCAR Car In 2027
There’s a new Mustang heading to Ford’s stable and it won’t be wasting any time getting on the track.
Ford has unveiled the 2026 Mustang Dark Horse SC, which is a new supercharged version of the pony car.
The new model features a supercharged 5.2-liter V8 plus handling and aerodynamic upgrades over the standard Dark Horse, which comes with a 500 hp 5.0-liter V8.
Ford hasn’t yet said how powerful the Dark Horse SC is, but the last Mustang Shelby GT500 that featured the engine was rated at 760 hp.
Pricing also hasn’t been announced, but it will be released soon as the Dark Horse SC order book opens this spring with the first deliveries expected in the summer. Those are customer deliveries, of course. There’s another version of the Dark Horse SC that will follow it a couple of months later.
“In 2027, we will take the Dark Horse SC and debut it at America’s racetrack, with America’s race team, the Daytona 500,” Ford Racing Global Director Mark Rushbrook said during the Ford Racing 2026 season launch event in Detroit.
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Ford’s NASCAR Cup Series cars have featured a Dark Horse identity since they were updated in 2024. Rushbrook didn’t elaborate, but the suggestion is that the cars will be redesigned for the 2027 season and adopt the slightly different look and name of the Dark Horse SC.
Don’t expect the cars to be supercharged, however, as that’s not allowed in NASCAR. At least not yet. The racing series has been testing IMSA-style torque sensors that could one day allow teams to field engines other than naturally aspirated V8s while balancing the power output across the different types.
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Even small changes to a Cup Series car’s body can affect performance in a major way, and Ford might need some improvements in 2027. That’s because Chevrolet was allowed to update its Camaro ZL1-inspired body for 2026, even though the model is no longer in production.