The Mustang made its first public racetrack appearance as pace car for the 1964 Indianapolis 500. That same year, Mustangs won first and second in class at the Tour de France international rally, and the car's American competition debut was in drag racing, where private individuals and dealer-sponsored teams ran Mustangs powered by 427 cu in (7.0 L) V8s.
In late 1964, Ford contracted Holman & Moody to prepare ten 427-powered Mustangs for the National Hot Rod Association's (NHRA) A/Factory Experimental class in the 1965 season. Five of these Mustangs debuted at the 1965 NHRA Winternationals, where the car driven by Bill Lawton won the class. A decade later, Bob Glidden won the Mustang's first NHRA pro stock title. Rickie Smith's Motorcraft Mustang won the International Hot Rod Association pro stock world championship. In 2002, John Force broke his own NHRA drag racing record by winning his 12th national championship in his Ford Mustang funny car; Force beat that record again in 2006, becoming the first-ever 14-time champion, driving a Mustang.
Early Mustangs proved successful in road racing. The GT 350 R — the race version of the Shelby GT 350 — won five of the Sports Car Club of America's (SCCA) six divisions in 1965. Drivers were Jerry Titus, Bob Johnson, and Mark Donohue; Titus won the SCCA B-Production national championship. The GT 350s won the B-Production title again in 1966 and 1967. They also won the 1966 manufacturers' championship in the inaugural SCCA Trans-Am series, and repeated the win the following year.
In 1970, Mustang won the SCCA series manufacturers' championship again, with Parnelli Jones and George Follmer driving for car owner and builder Bud Moore. Jones won the unofficial drivers' title.
In 1975, Ron Smaldone's Mustang became the first-ever American car to win the Showroom Stock national championship in SCCA road racing. In 1989, the Mustang won Ford its first Trans-Am manufacturers' title since 1970, with Dorsey Schroeder winning the drivers' championship. In 1997, Tommy Kendall's Roush-prepared Mustang won a record 11 consecutive races in Trans-Am to secure his third straight driver's championship.
Mustangs competed in the IMSA GTO class, with wins in 1984 and 1985. In 1985, John Jones won the GTO drivers' championship; Wally Dallenbach Jr., John Jones, and Doc Bundy won the GTO class at the Daytona 24 Hours; and Ford won its first manufacturers' championship in road racing since 1970. Three class wins went to Lynn St. James, the first woman to win in the series. 1986 brought eight more GTO wins and another manufacturers' title; Scott Pruett won the drivers' championship. The GT Endurance Championship also went to Ford that year.
In 1987, Saleen Autosport Mustangs driven by Steve Saleen and Rick Titus won the SCCA Escort Endurance SSGT championship, and in International Motor Sports Association (IMSA) racing a Mustang again won the GTO class in the Daytona 24 Hours.
Mustangs competed in the Grand-Am Road Racing Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge, with Ford winning championships for the 2005, 2008, and 2009 seasons with the Mustang FR500C and GT models. In 2004, Ford Racing retained Multimatic Motorsports to design, engineer, build, and race the Mustang FR500C. In 2005, Scott Maxwell and David Empringham took the driver's title. In 2010, the next-generation Boss 302R took its maiden victory at Barber Motorsports Park with drivers Scott Maxwell and Joe Foster. In 2012, Jack Roush Jr. and Billy Johnson won the Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge race at Daytona International Speedway in a Mustang Boss 302R. In 2016, Multimatic Motorsports won the IMSA CTSCC drivers' and manufacturers' titles with the S550-based Shelby GT350R-C, driven by Scott Maxwell and Billy Johnson.
In 1969, modified versions of the 428 Mach 1, Boss 429, and Boss 302 took 295 United States Auto Club-certified records at Bonneville Salt Flats, including a 24-hour run on a 10-mile course at an average speed of 157 mph (253 km/h). Drivers were Mickey Thompson, Danny Ongais, Ray Brock, and Bob Ottum.
Dick Trickle won 67 short-track oval feature races in 1972 in a Mustang, a US national record for wins in a single season. In 2010, the Ford Mustang became Ford's Car of Tomorrow for the NASCAR Nationwide Series, with full-time racing beginning in 2011. Carl Edwards won the first-ever race with a NASCAR-prepped Mustang on April 8, 2011, at the Texas Motor Speedway. Ford Mustangs have raced in the NASCAR Xfinity Series since 2010 and in the NASCAR Cup Series since 2019, replacing the discontinued Ford Fusion. Mustangs also compete in the NASCAR Whelen Euro Series.
Mustangs have competed in the Formula Drift and D1 Grand Prix series, most notably by American driver Vaughn Gittin Jr. Brazilian driver Diego Higa won the Netflix Hyperdrive Series in 2019 in a 2006 Ford Mustang V8. In Europe, Ford Mustangs compete in the FIA GT3 European Championship and the GT4 European Cup, as well as events such as the 24 Hours of Spa. The Marc VDS Racing Team was developing a GT3-spec Mustang from 2010. In Australia, the Mustang was announced as replacement for the Ford Falcon FG X in the 2019 Supercars Championship; Scott McLaughlin won for DJR Team Penske in the first race of the year.
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