There are only a few brands in the history of automotive excellence that evoke emotions such as the Stock Car racing powerhouse, Pontiac. Yet, it has been over two decades since the storied brand left the market for good. At the end of 2009, a glorious era also came to an end with General Motors pulling the plug on the iconic brand.
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But Pontiac’s demise stretches all the way back to the time when NASCAR itself played a crucial role in ensuring that the brand leaves the pinnacle of Stock Car racing. Despite suffering a few lean years in the Cup Series, Pontiac was still winning albeit sporadically.
However, in 2003, when it took its last win, enough was enough for General Motors who weren’t able to resist the prowess of Ford. That’s when they decided to let the Pontiac name out of the premier racing class altogether and instead focus on their Chevy brand.
Where did NASCAR come into all of this? While General Motors decided to shut up Pontiac’s shop in the Cup Series, it was majorly dictated by how NASCAR was demanding egregious sums to keep the brand name in the sport.
The promotion refused to keep Pontiac as the series’ official pace car supplier until a higher fee was paid. That was effectively the final nail in the coffin for the brand as it retired from the series at the end of the 2003 season.
The 2003 Darlington Raceway win will always keep Pontiac’s legacy alive
Pontiac despite its eventual exit from the sport, did not go out without putting up a fight. If it was NASCAR’s demanding tactics and Ford’s apparent invincibility that meant Pontiac had to leave, then, it would do so by having the last laugh.
That fight came in the form of the brand’s final NASCAR Cup Series win — taking their tally up to a whopping 154 wins — at the Darlington Raceway in 2003. It was a titanic fight between Pontiac’s Ricky Craven and Ford’s Kurt Busch.
Craven took the chequered flag ahead of Busch by a mere 0.002 seconds! “It was a while after I hung up my helmet until I realized the impact that race had on my life. No matter where I go people associate me with that moment, that race,” Craven said back in 2023.
March 16, 2003: 19 years ago, Ricky Craven beat Kurt Busch by .002 seconds at Darlington Raceway. pic.twitter.com/yUR8oRfEp7
— FOX: NASCAR (@NASCARONFOX) March 16, 2022
And this is exactly how Pontiac will also always be remembered. Craven himself made a call to arms when General Motors had decided to pull the plug on the Pontiac brand altogether.
“There are brand names in America that you just assume will always be around. I hoped one day it would make it back to the racetrack. Shouldn’t we be making a bigger deal out of this,” he lamented back in 2009.
At present, there are three makes in NASCAR — Chevrolet, Ford, and Toyota. At present there’s no confirmation regarding the entry of a fourth manufacturer to the racing series. However, the promotion is hard at work to introduce a diverse mix of manufacturers into the competitive arena in the near future.
