The 2022 Ford F-150 Lightning is the very first all-electric version of the Ford F-150, as well as The Blue Oval’s first EV pickup, period. But the forthcoming F-150 Lightning represents many firsts other than those two factoids, and it will now also serve as the very first electric pace pickup truck at this weekend’s NASCAR event at Martinsville Speedway on April 7th-9th, the automaker has announced.
Fans will be able to see the 2022 Ford F-150 Lightning pace truck on the track at Martinsville Speedway – which is celebrating its 75th anniversary – across all three top NASCAR touring series, beginning with the Camping World Truck Series on Thursday at 8 p.m. ET, followed by the NASCAR Xfinity Series race on Friday, and the NASCAR Cup Series, which is scheduled for Saturday. Both of the latter events are scheduled to begin at 7:30 p.m. ET.
“Ford is fully invested in electrification and the response to Lightning has been so overwhelming that it was an easy decision to bring it to a NASCAR event,” said Jeannee Kirkaldy, motorsports marketing manager, Ford Performance. “One thing we definitely know is that our fans love trucks and we’re confident that feeling will only grow when they see Lightning out on the track leading the field to green.”
This will mark the second straight year that an all-electric FoMoCo model has served as the pace vehicle at a NASCAR race after the Ford Mustang Mach-E paced Talladega Superspeedway last April. But that wasn’t the first time an EV had served as a NASCAR pace vehicle, as The Blue Oval was the first to do so when the Ford Focus EV paced the field in Richmond, Virginia way back in 2012. Additionally, the 2017 Ford F-150 Raptor was the official pace truck at the Ford EcoBoost 400 in the NASCAR Sprint Cup series back in 2016, while the 2016 Ford Mustang Shelby GT350 also served in that capacity at the same race the year prior.
Meanwhile, the 2022 Ford F-150 Lightning will be hitting the streets in addition to the track very soon, as the first batch of order conversions have already been scheduled for production.
We’ll have more on the F-150 Lightning soon, so be sure and subscribe to Ford Authority for the latest Ford F-Series news, Ford F-150 news, F-150 Lightning news, and continuous Ford news coverage.
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I ask Ford Authority to record the F-150 Lightning appearance at these races because many of us will not see the races live or on TV if we have no broadcast or cable access to these races.