This afternoon I saw the unveiling of the Car of the Heartland, the official Car of the American Farmer. This is a concept car developed by Furniture Row Racing. They’re looking for industry partners to help them make the car a reality on the NASCAR tracks in 2010, starting with the Daytona 500.

The unveiling was done to the participants in the American Farm Bureau Federation Public Relations Conference. Prior to seeing the new car we received a very in-depth tour of the Furniture Row Racing garage. Furniture Row races the #78 car in NASCAR. It was very interesting to see cars in various stages of development and speak with the engineers who work on them.

One of the key developers of the Car of the Heartland concept is Pat Driscoll, Corporate Relations, Furniture Row Racing. Pat is a former farm broadcaster friend from way back and it was great to see him again. I spoke with Pat about this new project after the cloth was pulled off the new car. He says the car is really a new model for NASCAR. For one thing the car will not sport a multitude of corporate logos. It will solely promote the American farmer with the intent of displaying different visuals of the agriculture that’s local to the area in which a race track is located. The goal is to help the American consumer better understand where their food comes from. Pat says they’re currently communicating with 31 different organizations about partnering with them on the project.

I’ve created a photo album from the unveiling so you can see multiple views of the car: Car of the Heartland Photo Album

You can listen to my interview with Pat here: