Forget the Fusion and Avenger, the 2010 Ford and Dodge NASCAR racers will be mean street machines and real pony cars. That’s right, the Mustang and Challenger.

Both cars are expected to be closer to stock than any car in recent history, but that’ s not saying much.

The move was made by the NASCAR governing body in an effort to help the series. In the past both GM and Ford warned that the current Cup cars would turn NASCAR into a spec-racing series with every car not only being similar but looking the same. This, they argued, would in turn lead to a lack of brand identification and, therefore, a loss of interest in the series.

It seems they were right.

NASCAR has suffered a significant drop in not only attendance figures and souvenir sales, but also in TV ratings – indicating that the problem is in fact a lack of interest and not a lack of funds.

The new cars actually won’t be all that different, but they will look different, something that NASCAR is most likely hoping will be of interest to manufacturers looking to capitalize on some marketing.

Despite the move by Ford and Doge, GM will continue to run the Impala SS rather than the 2010 Camaro. Also, Toyota is continuing on with its Camry, mostly because it doesn’t have anything else. The sole Japanese automaker in NASCAR recently dropped the two-door Solara from its lineup.

[Source: Fox Sports]

Late last week we reported that GM was ceasing production of the Cobalt SS Sedan and now the automaker has confirmed several other performance models will get the axe.

That’s right, the latest vehicles to face the guillotine in this French Revolution-style automotive bloodbath are three (or four depending on how you look at it) high-performance models: the Cadillac STS-V, the Chevrolet Impala SS and the Pontiac G6 GXP (Coupe and Sedan).

With the deletion of the Pontiac brand, we’re not even sure why GM is mentioning the high-performance GXP models. As for the Impala SS, this latest 8th generation model might not be all that captivating, even though a 303hp 5.3-liter V8 allows the car to hit 60 mph in 5.6 seconds, but the Impala SS name is an American Icon. The same can’t really be said for the STS-V, despite it’s supercharged V8, which boasts 469hp.

We could say its a conspiracy by the Democrats to get rid of high performance cars and replace them with green machines, (and while that could still be true) the low volume sales of these models are a convincing argument.

For GM loyalists, the news might get worse still. When asked about the future of the Cobalt SS Coupe, Chevy spokesman Terry Rhadigan would only say that it would continue for, “a while longer.”

Bankruptcy or not, when the recession is over and people start looking for high-performance vehicles again, GM is not going to be an appealing option.

[Source Automotive News via WorldCarFans]