EXCLUSIVE: Multi-award winning actor Dennis Quaid is set to star in AMC‘s NASCAR drama Thunder Road, from Young Guns and The Highwayman scribe John Fusco.

The project, which Deadline first told you about, is in fast-track development, with the writers’ room open. The casting of Quaid solidifies the project’s pickup chances, with production expected to rev up this summer.

Thunder Road follows the multi-generational saga of the Whitlock family, whose legacy in stock car racing is as deep as the family’s ties to the southern hill country roots that shaped them. The series features family dynamics, fierce rivalries, and the untold stories behind one of America’s most iconic sports. On the show, Quaid will play racing legend Duane Whitlock aka “The Wrecking Ball,” a towering figure who built a racing empire from a legacy of moonshine runs and dirt tracks and refuses to let it die. The series is further described as a story about a blue-collar dynasty at the edge of extinction — and the old king fighting to hold onto his crown.

Thunder Road is being produced in association with NASCAR (National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing). The project reps the first time the sport has been portrayed in a long-form drama series following its spotlight in such movies as Tom Cruise’s 1990 title Days of Thunder and the Netflix docuseries Full Speed.

Fusco is EP on the series alongside Cliff Roberts, who exec produced Netflix’s Eric Bana drama series Untamed, and Mark L. Smith, who co-created Untamed and is behind The Revenant, Twisters and Netflix series American Primeval. Tim Clark and John Dahl will exec produce for NASCAR with Gladys Cheng as producer.

Thunder Road is being spearheaded by Dan McDermott, Chief Content Officer of AMC Networks and President of AMC Studios.

Quaid won an Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Male for Todd Haynes’ Far From Heaven, a role which also notched him Golden Globe and Actors Award noms. He was nominated for outstanding lead actor in a movie or miniseries for his turn as Bill Clinton in 2010’s The Special Relationship which also earned him Actors Award and Golden Globe nominations. He shared an ensemble theatrical motion picture cast Actors Award for 2001’s Traffic. Recent credits include I Can Only Imagine 2, War Machine, and Reagan, and blockbusters, G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, The Day After Tomorrow, Something to Talk About, and more. Quaid is repped by UTA and Hansen, Jacobson, Teller, et al.