American automakers have a long history of using NASCAR to promote and sell new vehicles. While the cars that actually race these events bear little resemblance to their namesakes, the pace car position is still reserved for production automobiles. The Mustang has paced many a NASCAR race, and can now chalk up the 2010 Sprint Cup season finale among them.

Ford has released a few images of the 2012 Boss Mustang Pace Car, which is set to pace Sunday’s Ford 400 Sprint Cup finale.

Painted a vibrant Yellow Blaze color, the 2012 Boss Mustang Pace Car will be joined by two other Ford pace vehicles for the finale weekend. The 2012 Boss Mustang and 2011 Explorer will pace Sprint Cup finale event, while the F150 EcoBoost will pace the Ford 200 Camping World Series finale tomorrow. With 365 horsepower and 420 ft-lbs of torque, the 3.5 EcoBoost F-150 makes more power than the 5.0 V8 Ford also offers in the F-150, but with the benefit of better gas mileage.

This is the first time the Explorer will pace an event, though the Mustang has quite a few races under its belt. Earlier this year a Mustang GT paced the Daytona 500. Mustangs paced the Indy 500 in 1964, 1979, and 1995, and countless other races as well. Ford did sell a select number of  Daytona Pace cars from earlier this year, but did not indicate if a pace car package would be available for the 2012 Boss Mustang. With 444 horsepower, a track-inspired suspension, and the iconic Boss moniker, does it really need a pace car package? After all, that light bar might get in the way of top end performance. Just sayin’.