03/07/2020 – Kentucky native Howard Rose was a professional part-time driver in the greater sphere of North American stock car racing who enjoyed one banner year in his career – 1984 – when he drove full-time (15 races/15 starts) and scored one win and a 5th place season standings finish in the ARCA Menards Series (overall, Howard racked up 40 starts in ARCA over the course of 11 seasons). In NASCAR Xfinity, Howard tallied two starts and one DNQ in 1983 – driving family-owned Pontiacs – but it was his one start in Cup that is the focus of this blog entry.
On September 14, 1986, for the Delaware 500 at Dover Downs International Speedway, Howard managed to qualify his family-owned Performance Engine Pontiac Grand Prix 2+2 a respectable 34th out of a 40 car field. As is the case today, independents always have a rough time going toe-to-toe with the heavy hitters, and Howard was caught up in a crash with front runner Harry Gant in the Skoal Bandit Chevrolet on lap 142. The Pontiac subsequently struggled with Howard finally retiring the 2+2 due to overheating issues on lap 241, ending the day in 30th; this would be Howard’s only Cup start and Performance Engine’s only appearance as a sponsor in Cup. The highest finishing Pontiac on the day was Morgan Shepherd in the RahMoc Nationwise Auto Parts 2+2 Grand Prix who finished in 10th and led 36 laps; Rusty Wallace in Raymond Beadle’s Alugard 2+2 Grand Prix led 39 laps on the day but a crash took the edge off the racecar and Wallace limped home in 13th. Ricky Rudd took the race win in Bud Moore’s Motorcraft Ford Thunderbird, leading a race-high 141 laps and leaving all but the top three finishers at least one lap down.
The picture of Howard’s 2+2 is actually from the the 1986 Talladega ARCA 500K held on May 3, 1986, where he took home a more than solid 4th place, finishing on the lead lap and distinguishing himself as the highest finishing Pontiac on the day (this was the only race Howard had with Diet Sunkist sponsorship). That race winner was Grand Adcox in the Adcox family dealership owned and sponsored Chevrolet. Adcox, as we all know, lost his in life in the 1989 Cup series ending race, the Atlanta Journal 500 on November 19, where Rusty Wallace wound up claiming Pontiac’s first Cup championship since 1963 despite finishing 15th to race winner and 2nd place championship finisher Dale Earnhardt.
Be sure to check out Lobo Graphix for tons of model decal packages on ebay; lobo43decals(at)yahoo.com; special thanks to Andy Kershaw for forwarding me this rare picture of Howard’s Pontiac from Lobo Graphix’s photo gallery.
Pontiac Racing 