Ricky Craven’s breathless 2003 win at Darlington was the only one Pontiac claimed that year. With Chevy and Ford proving untouchable on the track, it wasn’t entirely surprising that Pontiac decided to throw in the towel. Even still, Pontiac’s exit from the NASCAR circuit felt abrupt, as Grand Prixs from Joe Gibbs Racing had won the Winston Cup Championship as recently as 2000 and 2002 with Bobby Labonte and Tony Stewart at the wheel respectively. As of this writing, Pontiac’s 154 NASCAR premier series wins ranks them sixth all-time, behind Chevy, Ford, Dodge, Plymouth, and Toyota.
As we now know, Pontiac’s on-track issues were foreshadowing bigger problems for the automaker in general. The company’s troubles were further compounded by the ’08 financial crisis, with General Motors announcing it would retire its Pontiac badge for good in 2009, with the last Pontiac rolling off the production line later that year. If Pontiac’s NASCAR exit marked the end of the road for a one-time stock car racing powerhouse, the company’s arguably long-coming ’09 demise was the end of an era for one of America’s most prominent automobile manufacturers, and an icon in the country’s muscle car movement.
In the wake of GM announcing the end of Pontiac, Craven perhaps put it best, telling ESPN, “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?”
