05/21/2017 – A great representation of the car, the driver, and an era.
Month: May 2017
Pontiac NASCAR 2000 Promo Poster
05/20/2017
Pure Oil Firebird Racing Gasoline Poster – Pontiacs Out Front
05/19/2017 – Everybody has seen the ‘PURE’ stickers adorning stock cars from the classic era. It was Pure Oil’s Firebird Racing Gasoline which was used preeminently during the classic era (pre-1965) until Pure was bought out by the Union Oil Company. Union Oil then continued with Pure’s racing tradition with one of the most famous NASCAR contingency decals of all time ‘ 76 – Official Fuel of NASCAR’ until 2003.
This poster was designed to highlight Pure’s affiliation with NASCAR in recognizing Marvin Panch’s 1961 Daytona 500 win behind the wheel of Smokey Yunick’s Pontiac. The fine print lauds Pure’s Fireball powering Pontiac and Panch to ‘…a new world’s race record of 149.601 miles per hour at Daytona International Speedway…’.
Interestingly enough, the poster shows Joe Weatherly (on the left, finished 2nd) and Marvin Panch (on the right, finished 49th) leading the pack in brand new 1961 Pontiacs while it was Panch who outraced everyone in Smokey Yunick’s year-old 1960 model to take the win (Panch’s teammate Fireball Roberts grenaded the engine in his 1961 Pontiac after dominating on the day and leading 170 of the first 187 laps).
The First Daytona 500 Pace Car – Pontiac
05/18/2017 – For the inaugural Daytona 500 in 1959, Pontiac paced the field with a beautiful Bonneville convertible; it would start a legacy that ultimately found Pontiac pacing the legendary race for 32 consecutive years (1972-2003) as well as 1961, 1962, and 1967 (in addition to the aforementioned 1959).
Rare Pontiac Paint Schemes, Tony Stewart II
05/17/2017 – Back when money was flowing like water in/into NASCAR, Universal Pictures tabbed Joe Gibbs’ Pontiac hotshoe Tony Stewart to give the third installment in their lucrative Jurassic Park series some massive exposure courtesy of a one-off Home Depot/Jurassic Park III paint scheme on his Grand Prix ran for the 2001 Pepsi 400 at Daytona International Speedway.
Stewart had a decent day turn sour courtesy of a questionable (some say) yellow line violation late in the race which resulted in a 26th place finish as the last car on the lead lap; teammate Bobby Labonte in the Interstate Batteries Grand Prix also ran a Jurassic Park III scheme and fared better, finishing 5th (and the highest finishing Pontiac on the day).
Pontiac at the All Star Race
05/16/2017 – With the upcoming Monster Energy All-Star Race at Charlotte, it’s a good time to take stock of Pontiac’s performance at this event from 1985-2003.
Pontiac’s participation over the years was as follows (year/driver//finish/start) –
- 1985 – Tim Richmond 5/9, Richard Petty 11/9 – Inaugural Event
- 1986 – No Pontiac drivers
- 1987 – Rusty Wallace 5/7, Greg Sacks 15/11, Richard Petty 19/16, Neil Bonnett 20/8
- 1988 – Neil Bonnet 10/15, Rusty Wallace 13/10, Greg Sacks 19/17
- 1989 – Rusty Wallace 1/3, Greg Sacks 10/10, Richard Petty 16/19, Morgan Shepherd 19/18, Kyle Petty 20/17 – Pontiac’s only win
- 1990 – Dick Trickle 6/20, Kyle Petty 15/12, Rusty Wallace 20/14
- 1991 – Michael Waltrip 6/18, Rusty Wallace 7/10, Kenny Wallace 17/17
- 1992 – Kyle Petty 2/16, Rusty Wallace 6/2, Richard Petty 9/15, Michael Waltrip 15/19
- 1993 – Rusty Wallace 8/2, Michael Waltrip 18/19, Kyle Petty 20/6
- 1994 – Kyle Petty 11/9
- 1995 – No Pontiac driver
- 1996 – Kyle Petty 11/10, Ward Burton 19/6
- 1997 – Bobby Labonte 2/5, Ward Burton 13/14, Kyle Petty 14/15, Bobby Hamilton 20/13
- 1998 – Bobby Labonte 2/3, John Andretti 18/18, Ernie Irvan 20/15
- 1999 – Tony Stewart 2/21, John Andretti 10/15, Kyle Petty 13/14, Ward Burton 14/20, Bobby Labonte 15/1, Ernie Irvan 18/12
- 2000 – Bobby Labonte 9/3, Ward Burton 10/13, Tony Stewart 15/6, John Andretti 20/18
- 2001 – Tony Stewart 3/4, Bobby Labonte 4/2, Johnny Benson Jr 9/20
- 2002 – Tony Stewart 6/23, Bobby Labonte 16/13
- 2003 – Ricky Craven 10/7, Johnny Benson Jr 24/15 – Last All Star Race for Pontiac
Only 1 Pontiac win for all those years, but it certainly was a memorable one as Wallace nudged Darrell Waltrip out of the way to take the win and the drivers’ respective crews proceeded to have a donnybrook after the race. As of now, Pontiac and Toyota are with 1 win each, significantly behind Chevrolet/17, Ford/11 and just behind (and never to surpass) Dodge/2.
In addition to the main event there is the preliminary NASCAR Open which has been won by Pontiac 5 times – Dick Trickle/1990, Michael Waltrip/1991 & 1992, Tony Stewart/1999, Johnny Benson Jr/ 2001 (Waltrip, Sterling Marlin/Oldsmobile, and Clint Bowyer/Toyota are the only drivers to have won consecutive opens for a manufacturer).
For 1998-2001 there were twin 25-lap races (No Bull 25 Shootout) to determine the starting grid for the Open, this was won once by Pontiac, Tony Stewart/1999.
The origins of the All Star can be traced to an event held from 1961-1963 called the Race of Champions/American Challenge Cup which was held at Daytona International Speedway; Pontiac won the event 2 out of the 3 years it was held with Joe Weatherly/1961 and Fireball Roberts/1962 (Roberts finished 2nd to Weatherly in 1961, Weatherly finished 2nd to Roberts in 1962).
Rusty Wallace Miller Genuine Draft-Pontiac Poster
05/15/2017
Happy Mother’s Day
05/14/2017 – Happy Mother’s Day from Pontiac Racing.
Richard Petty NASCAR Board Game
05/13/2017 – No one can say that Richard Petty never took advantage of a marketing opportunity, just about anything and everything that could be adorned with a 43, the STP logo, Richard’s toothy grin and/or his whirling autograph has been, and – judging by the King’s on-going popularity – he’s doing it right.
Obviously this game didn’t exactly cause Monopoly to be forgotten, but it is a nice, pop culture example how NASCAR (or Petty’s management) tried to work it’s way into the mainstream even back in 1986 (or 1987, judging by Richard’s Pontiac Grand Prix 2+2 taking center stage on the cover, noticeably the only car with a manufacturer or sponsor marking).
If anybody has ever played this game, I’d love to hear about it.
Vintage Tim Richmond-NASCAR-Pontiac-Old Milwaukee Poster
05/12/2007 – Beautiful poster, superb artwork overall, especially the detail on the Grand Prix itself; no chance of mistaking this for a Gen-5 car.
Pontiac Racing 