07/22/2023 – Long-time Pontiac Racing favorite Jimmy Means was the undisputed master at finding sponsorship, and he always did his utmost to present himself and his race team as professionally as possible. For 1988, Means very well could have used previous years’ 2+2 model to save money, but instead he went with the new GM10 platform.
10/22/22
05/07/2022 – Michael Waltrip’s long-suffering – and frequently documented – winless streak driving Pontiacs never came closer to being a non-occurrence in the annals of Pontiac stock car racing history than on April 7, 1991, at the running of the Transouth 500 at Darlington. Waltrip drove Pontiacs for Chuck Rider in 1986 and then 1988 through 1995, never winning a points race while racking up 15 top-5’s and 2 poles (note – Waltrip finished 12th in the points driving Pontiacs in 1994 and 1995; this bettered his finals points standings driving for DEI – 2001-2005 – where his best points standing was 14th in 2002 despite his 4 careers wins there – 1/2001, 1/2002, 2/2003).
Check out the great video from wfrncsu012 where he also has an outstanding write-up highlighting how Waltrip’s dominating Pontiac got derailed by bad racing luck.
05/08/2021
12/30/2020 – NASCAR’s independent ‘Master of the Deal’ Jimmy Means gets another blog feature and we get to see one of his Grand Prix 2+2’s in a one-off paint scheme.
Campaigning his unsponsored Pontiacs in 1986, Means picked up the odd sponsor whenever he could, and for the 1986 Champion Spark Plug 400 at Michigan International Speedway on August 17, 1986, Means corralled sponsorship from Axe Equipment and made the race, starting 39th out of the 41 car field. This would be Axe Equipment’s only Cup sponsorship appearance.
Despite losing a wheel during a round of pit stops, Means finished the race in 25th place, 10 laps down to winner Bill Elliot in the Coors Melling Ford Thunderbird (featuring dominating horsepower courtesy of Ernie Elliot).
Here is a great picture of Means’ Pontiac on the starting grid which as a bonus also shows another Grand Prix 2+2, the Winkle Pontiac piloted by the great J.D. McDuffie (who started the race in 40th).
10/11/2020 – Resident Pontiac Racing favorite Jimmy Means never disappoints with a delve into the NASCAR Cup archives, especially when it comes to the Pontiacs that he campaigned for years.
As mentioned previously on this blog, being a master of the deal-on-the-spot to keep his operation running Means dealt with local as well as national and international businesses; his one-off Taco Bell sponsorship is an indication of this. When most NASCAR Cup fans think of Taco Bell sponsorship, they think of Bob Jenkins’ cars adorned with the multi-billion dollar Mexican fast food chain’s logos and colors from 2005-2016, but they actually had a presence in Cup going back to 1989 when NASCAR Southwest Series standout and multi-race winner Troy Beebe notched 3 Cup races (in a Pontiac, no less) from 1989-1990 with sponsorship from ‘The Bell’ (Troy’s father was a Taco Bell franchisee).
Means put together a one-off deal with Taco Bell for the Bud 500 at Bristol International Speedway on August 29, 1992. The race was not a great success for Means as he finished 24th out of 32 starters, 105 laps down but shown as the last car running at the finish. Ultimately won by Darrell Waltrip in his self-owned Western Auto Chevrolet, this race is of historical note as it was the first Bristol race ran on concrete.
Pontiac Racing 