2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid to wave NASCARs green flag this weekend

For the first time ever, a NASCAR Sprint Cup event will be paced by a hybrid, Ford's fresh-faced 2010 Fusion

Hybrid to be exact. The race is scheduled to take place this Sunday at the Homestead-Miami Speedway. The box-

stock Fusion hybrid will be able to travel on electricity alone for up to 47 miles per hour, which isn't quite

fast enough to kick off the race, so this one will be burning some gas. One thing that the hybrid can do that

the Sprint Cup cars only wish they could is travel up to 700 miles per tank of fuel. Anyway, the leafy-

camouflaged hybrid will lead the race cars to the green flag (waved by none other than Mark Fields) to kick

things off, after which a 2010 Ford Fusion Sport will pick up the mantle as pace car for the rest of the

event.

Both the 2010 Fusion hybrid and Fusion Sport will see their formal debut at the LA Auto Show on the 19th. Both

models are new for '10, with the hybrid posting a rumored best-in-class fuel mileage of at least 38 mpg in the

city, while its Sport sibling gets Ford's new 3.5-liter V6 engine producing 263 hp and 249 lb-ft of torque.

Best of all, every Fusion model will come standard with a six-speed automatic.