Race Car Of The Day: December 21, 2010

Today's car of the day is Matchbox's 1993 Chevrolet Lumina NASCAR stock car (Phil Parsons).

The Chevrolet Lumina sedan , coupe and minivan were first introduced in 1989 for the 1990 model year as a new range of vehicles from the Chevrolet brand of General Motors to replace both the Chevrolet Celebrity sedan, and the Monte Carlo coupe. The Lumina was an answer from General Motors to the Ford Taurus. All Luminas were built at the Oshawa Car Assembly plant, in Ontario, Canada. The Chevrolet Lumina had the longest length from any other W-body car at the time.

Consumers were ultimately confused by having two different vehicles (the Lumina sedan and the Lumina APV minivan) share the same name, and the concept was eventually dropped when the Lumina APV was replaced by the Chevrolet Venture in 1997.

For more information and pictures of the real car please visit: Chevrolet Lumina & Phil Parsons

I try not to run two NASCAR stock cars so close to one another, but I was short on pictures and grabbed the first car I could get my hands on tonight.  This one is one I've been wanting to feature so that's a bonus.  In 1993 Matchbox hosted the first convention in Hershey, and Phil Parsons (and this car) were there.  Phil was signing autographs and chatting with everyone- I must say a very pleasant driver to get to talk to.  This particular variation on the car features Kiddie Kar Kollectibles located in Reading, Pennsylvania.  I'm about forty-five minutes east of their store and go there fairly frequently.  When I saw this on the shelf there it was an easy purchase- no hesitation!  Not often you get to see your local diecast store on an official diecast release.

Phil Parsons (born June 21, 1957, in Detroit, Michigan), is a former NASCAR driver and owner of MSRP Motorsports . He is also the younger brother of the late 1973 Winston Cup champion and former NBC/TNT commentator Benny Parsons. Years later, he returned to the Busch Series, where he enjoyed modest success. During his racing career, he also embarked on a career as a racing TV commentator, providing color analysis for the Mizlou Television Network. Many of these shows can be seen on TV4U.Com. He is now a commentator for Speed Channel's coverage of the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series. He can also be heard as the part-time co-host of The Driver's Seat with John Kernan on Sirius Satellite Radio's NASCAR channel 128 and is also a commentator for the DirecTV NASCAR Hot Pass during Sprint Cup races. He was the starter waving the green flag for the 2007 Daytona 500. In 2008, he along with his wife Marcia became part owners of a new Nationwide Series team, MSRP Motorsports.