Upcoming Race at Martinsville

03/31/2017 – I’m not sure why current NASCAR PR blurbs always negate the past history of manufacturers and only reference the wins of existing manufacturers, as if that history no longer applies.  Why do they then reference past/retired winners?

http://www.espn.com/jayski/cup/2017/story/_/id/19025289/analyzing-stp-500

For the upcoming race at Martinsville Speedway, the STP 500, it marks the 36th anniversary of Pontiac’s first win (at Martinsville) since its return to NASCAR in the modern era courtesy of Morgan Shepherd in Cliff Stewart’s Performance Connection Grand Prix (Virginia 500, April 26, 1981).  Morgan started 12th and led 203 laps on the day (just one less than Harry Gant in Kennie Childer’s Kencoal Mining Oldsmobile).

Pontiac has 8 wins at Martinsville (two more than Toyota, for now) – Junior Johnson/1961, Joe Weatherly/1961, Morgan Shepherd/1981, Rusty Wallace/1986 & 1993, John Andretti/1999, Tony Stewart/2000, and Bobby Labonte/2002.

Pivotal Races in NASCAR History

03/30/2017 – Followers of NASCAR Cup history can quickly recall the pivotal races in the sport’s history that relate to milestones in the sports development, growth, or change, i.e. the first race at Daytona or Indianapolis, the final race at North Wilkesboro, Richard Petty’s last race, the 2001 Daytona 500 that claimed the life of Dale Earnhardt, the first restrictor plate race, just to name a few.

There is one race that truly sticks out in how it had a collateral effect on NASCAR beyond the race itself, but rather the circumstances how it was presented to the public and subsequently catapulted the sport into the public’s eye in a manner that could not have been planned or conceived.  By how things like this happen, the collective collateral talent in both visual and technical presentation took advantage of a captive US television audience and – with some luck and the genuine characters and unpredictable drama implicit on the racetrack – literally changed the future of NASCAR.  One of the best presentations on how the 1979 Daytona 500 changed NASCAR can be seen here –

A Perfect Storm – 1979 Daytona 500

From a Pontiac perspective, there was no Red Dart participation on the track, that was still 2 years away; the only Pontiacs on the track were the Trans Am pace cars.

1979 Pontiac Firebird Trans Am, 1979 Daytona 500 pace car; hopefully none of the pace cars on the track had the 6.6 Oldsmobile motor as opposed to the 6.6. Pontiac motor so they could literally keep pace with the field.

 

The Pontiac Qualifying King

03/29/2017 – The legendary Fireball Roberts was one of NASCAR’s first true superstars and his skill on the big tracks was second to none.  While winning more than his fair share of races he was, undoubtedly, one of the all-time great qualifiers during Pontiac’s glory years.

Just how good of a qualifier was Roberts behind the wheel of a Pontiac?  Consider this – Roberts drove Pontiacs for 59 races, of those 59 races he sat on the pole 26 times for an astounding pole-winning percentage of 44.1%.

Roberts’ entire career is the one of legend, and it is the smaller – perhaps even overlooked – details like this that shows just how great Roberts truly was.

2 NASCAR legends – Fireball Roberts and his 1962 Pontiac.

 

Oldest Pontiac Pole Winner

03/28/2017 – When reviewing all the great drivers that have won pole positions for Pontiac, numerous legendary and championship winning drivers come to mind – Fireball Roberts/Pontiac King of the Big Tracks in the Classic Era, and Rusty Wallace/Pontiac Short Track Wizard of the Modern Era, are just a few to write their name in the record books.

One driver won a pole position at an age normally reserved for a legend like Harry Gant when discussing peak performance at a near-grandparent age.  Morgan Shepherd, he of red hair, roller skating, and his legendary Christmas Charity Fund, won the pole for the 1989 Budweiser at the Glen, Watkins Glen International, NY, on August 13, 1989, at the age of 47 years, 10 months, and 1 day.  Driving the RahMoc Enterprise Valvoline Grand Prix, Shepherd won the pole position, led 22 laps on the day (the most of all competitors), and finished a solid 6th.

The race wound up being a good day for Pontiac as they not only won the pole with Shepherd, but then had Rusty Wallace take the win in the Blue Max Kodiak Grand Prix; this was Shepherd’s last career pole.  Pontiac side-note – this was the last Cup career top-10 for Jim Sauter (father of drivers Jay, Tim, and Johnny) driving the Bob Tullius Group 44 Grand Prix; Group-44 was a sports car team that ran Jaguars in the highly regarded IMSA series.

You can watch the entire race here – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6sJqEa77yNE

Screenshot, Pole Sitter Morgan Shepherd.

Single Season/Driver – Most Pontiac Laps Led, All-Time

 

03/27/2017 – How dominant was Rusty Wallace from a pure performance perspective in 1993 behind the wheel of the Penske Miller Genuine Draft Grand Prix?  Consider these statistics (despite 5 DNF’s out of the then-30 race schedule) –

• Series Leader in Wins – 10 (almost double his closest competitor, Dale Earnhardt/6)
• Series Leader in Top-5’s – 19
• Tied for Series Lead in Top-10’s – 21
• Series Leader in Laps Led – 2,860 (almost double that of his closest competitor, Dale Earnhardt/1,475)

The difference between Wallace finishing 2nd to Earnhardt in the final Cup Championship standings was Earnhardt’s better finishing  average (8.2 to 9.4) thanks to only 2 DNF’s despite being significantly behind Wallace in the aforementioned performance categories.

1993 was a banner year for Pontiac, they would suffer through a miserable 1994, followed by a mediocre span of 1995-1998 before the Labonte and Stewart tandem at Joe Gibbs Racing led them out in a blaze of glory from 1999-2002.

A common sight in 1993, Wallace in his Pontiac leading all other competitors.

 

 

Vintage Pontiac-NASCAR Ad

03/26/2017

PlayStation Cover

03/25/2017 – When the 2001 Cup season rolled around, Pontiac fans couldn’t believe how their fortune had changed starting in 1999 following the grim years of the mid-1990’s – Tony Stewart and Bobby Labonte were driving Joe Gibbs Racing’s Pontiacs and were legitimate contenders every week regardless of the track, Tony won Rookie of the Year for 1999, Bobby won the Cup Championship for 2000, and Stewart landed the plum cover of PlayStation’s NASCAR game for 2001, and we hadn’t even gotten to Stewart’s 2002 Cup Championship yet.  Hard to believe that by the end of the 2003 season, the Red Dart would be officially and completely (for all practical purposes) out of the sport.

 

Pontiac’s Last Restrictor Plate Race

03/24/2017 – As we maintain the theme of restrictor plate racing…

Pontiac’s last restrictor plate race was the EA Sports 500 at Talladega Superspeedway on September 28, 2003 (this was a month prior to the announcement of Pontiac’s withdrawal from NASCAR).

The decline in performance from 2002’s levels (Joe Gibbs Racing had switched over to Chevrolet for 2003) continued to be in evidence as 2 out of 5 Pontiacs fielded failed to qualify (Kevin Lepage in the McClure Kodak Grand Prix and Jason Leffler in Gene Haas’ NetZero Hi Speed Grand Prix).  Of the 3 remaining Pontiacs that did qualify, the highest qualifier was Ricky Craven (17th) in Cal Wells’ Tide Grand Prix who also was the highest finishing Pontiac (8th, which turned out to be Pontiac’s final top-10 finish at a restrictor plate as well as Craven’s last career Cup top-10); Johnny Benson Jr had a miserable day in James Rocco’s Valvoline Grand Prix as he started and finished 41st, and Mike Skinner started 28th and finished 27th in Nelson Bowers’ USG Sheetrock Grand Prix.   Craven was the only finisher on the lead lap; Pontiac led no laps on the day.

 

Pontiac’s First Restrictor Plate Pole

03/23/2017 – Pontiac never had much success at the plate tracks, just one victory – 1998, Bobby Labonte at Talladega which has been documented on this blog – and it took until 1993 (plate racing started with the 1988 season) for Pontiac to win its first pole position.

Kyle Petty won 8 career poles (1990-1993), all in Pontiacs and all during his association with Felix Sabates (1989-1996).  When you mention the Kyle and Sabates tenure, the first thing that comes to mind are his dominating wins at Rockingham, but Kyle did etch his name in the Pontiac Cup record book by winning the Red Dart’s first restrictor plate pole for the 1993 Daytona 500.

Kyle had shown speed all weekend in the Mello Yello Grand Prix which translated into the pole position and once the race started, the car demonstrated it could draft well also (the front end of the superspeedway Pontiacs looked hugely non-stock, but so be it).  Kyle stayed up front as the race progressed, showing good speed and eventually leading 19 laps on the day (not all at the start of the race) until he was caught up in a wreck with Bobby Hillin on lap 158, prematurely ending his day with a 31st place finish.  The 1993 Daytona 500 would ultimately be known and remembered for the now legendary ‘Dale-and-Dale Show’ as Dale Jarrett and Dale Earnhardt battled for the win with announcer Ned Jarrett (coaxed and prodded by the broadcast producers) exhorting his son to the win.

Despite the awkward start to the season, Kyle would ultimately have an excellent 1993 with 1 victory (Pocono) and a 5th place finish in the final Championship standings; the 1993 Daytona 500 would be Kyle’s final Cup career pole.

 

 All-GM Front Row – 1993 Daytona 500 – Kyle Petty on the pole, eventual winner Dale Jarrett starting 2nd in Joe Gibbs Racing’s Interstate Batteries Chevrolet Lumina.

 

 

 

Before Daniel Suarez, there was Pedro Rodriguez

03/22/2017 – Much is written in NASCAR these days over a young, talented Mexican driver named Daniel Suarez who, by any account of his professional performance thus far, his alignment with the world-class Joe Gibbs Racing organization, and an unexpected catapult into Cup courtesy of Carl Edwards’ surprise retirement, has a bright racing future indeed.

However, 50+ years ago there also was a Mexican driver, a genuine leadfoot, a 2-time winner in Formula 1, who tried his hand at NASCAR on 6 separate occasions, one of which found him behind the wheel of a Pontiac for the summer classic 1963 Firecracker 400.  This would be Pedro Rodriguez, Mexico’s first international racing star, and genuinely loved by the Mexican racing public.  Rodriguez’s sole Pontiac start was not what was hoped for; after starting a promising 9th in Ray Nichels’ 1963 Catalina, the big Pontiac experienced an engine failure relegating Rodriguez to a 25th place finish.

Rodriguez’s racing CV shows him with victories at the 1967 South African Grand Prix at the Kyalami Circuit and the 1970 Belgian Grand Prix (in an incredible downpour) at  the legendary Spa-Francorchamps.  Rodriguez also won the 24 Hours of Le Mans (1968) and the 24 Hours of Daytona 4 times, including back-to-back victories on two occasions.  Rodriguez most notable NASCAR accomplishment/profile was winning the ‘Rookie of the Year’ title for the 1971 Daytona 500.

Mexico City’s world-renown Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez is named after him and his racing sibling Ricardo, who – like Pedro –  was killed in a racing accident.

Rodriguez with Nichels’ 1963 Pontiac, Daytona.