Honda racing officials haven’t said anything officially about a NASCAR effort, but the company’s debut of a pickup truck at last week’s Detroit auto show has sparked considerable interest. The Honda Ridgeline truck will be for sale this spring, as a 2006 model, with the company expecting to sell about 50,000 this year. The pickup will be built at Honda’s plant in Ontario, Canada, and will have a 3.5-liter V-6 engine. NASCAR’s new common-template rules would make it easy for Honda to put the machine in NASCAR’s trucks series, if Honda comes up with a NASCAR-legal V-8.(Winston Salem Journal)(1-21-2005)
