Driver’s Last Career Cup Start, Pontiac – Jack Sprague

07/31/2017 – Michigan native Jack Sprague is a 3-time NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Champion with 28 Truck wins on his resume.  His brief venture in Cup racing (24 career starts) was, unfortunately, nowhere near as successful.  A fierce competitor with a personality to match, Jack was not active in the truck series for 2003 and was tabbed to run Gene Haas’ NetZero Pontiacs that season.

Running the first 18 races of the 2003 season, Jack and the Haas team had a tough time, with no top-10’s and no laps led; he finished on the lead lap just once (the season-opening Daytona 500) which also was his best finish, 14th.  After a 40th place finish at Chicago that marked 3 consecutive finishes of 31st or worse in Haas’ Grand Prix, Sprague and Haas parted ways; Sprague has never raced in Cup or attempted to qualify for another Cup race since.

Bobby Labonte Interstate Batteries-Pontiac Poster

07/30/2017

One Pontiac Start in Cup as Car Owner

07/29/2017 – Ken Schrader has one official start in Cup as a car owner, and it was at Pocono, July 22, 1990 for the AC Spark Plug 500 where Schrader had New York native and Whelen Modified Series 7-race winner Brian Ross take the wheel of the unsponsored Schrader Racing Pontiac Grand Prix for Ross’ only career Pontiac Cup start.  Ross qualified 36th out of 39 cars and finished 27th (after running as high as 19th), 25 laps down, after the engine grenaded.  Ross would have one more start in Cup, in 1991 at Dover in a self-owned Buick, which marked the end of his Cup appearances.

Pontiac Cup Winners at Pocono

07/29/2017 – Tim Richmond – 1983, Rusty Wallace – 1991, Kyle Petty – 1993, and Bobby Labonte – 1999 (season sweep) and 2001.

Rusty Wallace-Pontiac 1989 NASCAR Cup Champion – 76 Racing Gasoline Poster

07/28/2017

Pontiac-NASCAR Year in Review – 1954

07/27/2017 – Pontiac was represented in only 2 races of the 37 race 1954 Grand National Season, both times courtesy of California native Bill Stammer.

Stammer has 10 career Cup starts to his credit, all at tracks located on the West coast or in the Southwest (Arizona and Nevada).  Stammer’s 2 Pontiac starts in his self-owned 1953 Chieftain were his only starts of 1954 and his only career Cup Pontiac races.

Stammer raced at Oakland Stadium’s .5 mile dirt track in Oakland, CA, March 28, 1954, race #6 on the Grand National calendar.  Stammer finished 16th out of 26 cars, 60 laps behind winner Dick Rathman in Ray Erickson’s 1952 Hudson (no records exist for starting positions except for the winner Rathman and pole-sitter Hershel McGriff).

Stammer’s second and final race for 1954 (and Pontiac) was at Carrell Speedway’s .5 mile dirt track in Gardena, CA, May 30, 1954, race #16 on the Grand National calendar.  Stammer finished 17th after starting a very respectable 9th in the 32 car field, 55 laps down to winner John Soares in Charles Vance’s 1954 Dodge.

 

Driver’s Final Cup Qualifying Attempt, Part III – Pontiac

07/26/2017 – California native St James Davis competed in numerous K&N West Series races (113 to be exact from 1978-1999) who attempted to qualify for numerous Cup races from 1980-1995 without success.  His final Cup qualifying attempt was for the 1995 Save Mart Supermarkets 300 in a self-owned/self-sponsored Pontiac Grand Prix where he qualified 49th out of 51 entrants for 43 spots and did not race.

Davis’ greatest claim to infamy is a sad story involving a chimpanzee; I cannot do the story justice and instead refer you to this link –

http://www.carllongmotorsports.com/FANS/smf/index.php?topic=6130.0

Rare Paint Pontiac Paint Schemes, Troy Beebe

07/25/2017 – Troy Beebe was a sometime Cup and Xfinity driver who looked to move upwards in the professional stock car racing ranks following several outstanding seasons in NASCAR’s Southwest Series (4 consecutive top-5 finishes for 1986-1989, 4 wins, and 100’s of laps led).

As is to be expected when moving up to an elite level in any kind of professional sports, the trajectory upward can be brutal and unforgiving, especially – in the case of motorsports – when deep pockets are nowhere to be found.

Troy had 12 qualifying attempts and 5 starts in Cup, 3 in Buicks and 2 in Pontiacs.   Both Pontiac starts (in 1990 at consecutive races at Pocono and Michigan) were in Grand Prix’s owned by D.K. Ulrich.  For the Michigan race (Beebe’s last Pontiac Cup start) he had sponsorship from fast food chain Taco Bell who also sponsored him in Xfinity/Busch (his Busch Taco Bell Lumina models/diecasts are a mild collectible as the paint scheme reflects the classic Taco Bell colors of the 1980’s-1990’s).  For the Michigan race Beebe started 28th and finished 31st; Beebe would have one more Cup start in 1990 and 2 more qualifying attempts (in a Buick, both DNQ’s) in 1991  when his foray into Cup ended.

Petty NASCAR Pontiac Puzzle

07/24/2017 – Another piece of memorabilia in the long, winding train that followed Richard Petty on his farewell tour; the Pontiac – although carrying no manufacturer markings – is up front.

Pontiac at Indianapolis

07/23/2017 – Pontiacs raced at the Brickyard starting at 1994’s inaugural event all the through their final year in Cup, 2003.

Pontiacs visited victory lane just once, courtesy of Bobby Labonte in the Interstate Batteries Grand Prix who outdueled Rusty Wallace in the Penske Ford in the 2000 Brickyard 400, as Labonte nudged the former Pontiac champion out of the way with 15 laps to go.

Pontiacs led the field to the green flag on 2 occasions – 1998 with Ernie Irvan in Nelson Bowers’ Skittles Grand Prix (Irvan would finish 6th on the day), and 2002 with home state hero Tony Stewart in Joe Gibbs’ Home Depot Grand Prix (Stewart would finish 12th on the day).

Some Pontiac Brickyard side-notes –

For the inaugural 1994 event, the first stock car to attempt an official qualifying run was long-time Pontiac campaigner H.B. Bailey in his red #36 Grand Prix.  NASCAR followers and even Pontiac fans knew Bailey probably wouldn’t qualify considering the depth of the field and the high-dollar teams present, and he didn’t, qualifying 69th out of a whopping 86 entries.

Johnny Benson Jr led 70 laps in the Pennzoil Grand Prix for the 1996 Brickyard 400, this is still (up to and including 2017) the highest number of laps led by a Cup rookie at Indy.

Bobby Labonte, who drove Pontiac to its only Brickyard win in 2000.