The Mustang and the Camry got new faces this year, and that means those cars need matching redesigns in NASCAR. Both Ford and Toyota have taken the opportunity to sneak in aerodynamic improvements for their Cup Series counterparts with these production car updates. While we saw Ford take an aggressive approach with the Mustang front end with some sharp and tall fenders, Toyota appears to have taken a more balanced approach in order to maximize on every element allowed by NASCAR inside of that aerodynamic efficiency box.

The new Toyota Camry XSE Cup car moves away from the angular front end of the previous generation over to a flatter front end that resembles the “hammerhead” design elements of the recently introduced Camry production car. At first glance, the Camry Cup car appears to be more subdued than the outgoing variant but a closer look shows a variety of details that point to overall improved aerodynamic performance along with better compatibility for drafting tracks like Daytona and Talladega.

Starting with the basics we can see that the hood has been expanded to a flatter rectangular shape with new narrow hood duct exits that appear to have been moved inward. These hood ducts exits are one of the bigger elements when it comes to how the NASCAR Next Gen car moves air and Toyota has taken multiple opportunities to redesign them. These ducts are the third variant of how air is expelled from the radiator since the launch of the first Next Gen-era NASCAR Camry.

Moving down the hood towards the front bumper, we now notice a distinct flat area where the “CAMRY” lettering is located on the front. That flat area likely points to a focus on making the Camry draft better on superspeedways like Atlanta, Daytona, and Talladega, which require cars to be back to back. While Toyota has skilled superspeedway racers like Bubba Wallance and Denny Hamlin in its camp, it hasn't seen huge success on these types of tracks with the Next Gen car. Optimizing the car for better drafting should allow it to be more competitive next year. Increased Camry car counts in the field won't hurt either.

The lower grille area of that bumper shows that drafting wasn’t the only focus. We see elements of the production car bumper optimized for the race car with how the C-shaped corner vents are molded. The bottom of the bumper is also stepped to send air over the side of the car. The complexity of the front bumper is most notable with an angled look that shows the edge to be K-shaped in order to optimize airflow.

Looking at the bottom corners of the bumper shows that new step or ramp which is a notable departure from Toyota's previous design. It almost resembles a dive plane that we might see on a GT race car. These ramps are likely designed with control of front downforce in mind, but nothing in a race car's aero exists in a vacuum, so to speak. The ramps should also offer teams more options when it comes to car setup and how it relates to other aerodynamic components on the car such as the flat underbody.