Remembering Pontiac's legacy as GM closes brand

The news out of Detroit that General Motors was eliminating its Pontiac division after 83 years officially closes the book on one of NASCAR's most successful manufacturers. In 1,262 races spanning 50 seasons, Pontiacs won 154 races, had 805 top-five finishes and wound up in the top 10 a total of 1,695 times. The brand won more than $130 million in prize money, two manufacturers championships and four Cup titles.

A look back at Pontiac's history through the years shows a number of interesting facts. Pontiac's debut came in the 1950 season opener at the Daytona beach and road course. New Jersey driver Dick Clothier entered a '47 Pontiac and North Carolina's Will Albright ran a '46 model. Clothier only completed five laps and finished 36th out of the 41 cars which started, while Albright made 43 of the 48 laps and wound up 19th.

As a manufacturer, Pontiac began to show serious interest in NASCAR near the end of the 1956 season, and outfitted Ray Nichels with a pair of factory-supported cars for Cotton Owens and Banjo Matthews for the return to the beach in '57. Matthews won the pole and Owens started directly behind him in third. By the time the field made one trip down the beach and back up A-1-A, Owens had assumed the lead. The Spartanburg, S.C., native would go on to lead 30 of the 39 laps, scoring Pontiac's first win and bringing home $4,250.

Pontiac's first Golden Era came early in the next decade, thanks to the son of GM president William Knudsen. Bunkie Knudsen had a novel idea: take the Catalina, marketed at the time as a family sedan, widen the wheelbase, stick a powerful Chevrolet V-8 under the hood and see how it would do in NASCAR. Almost immediately, the decision paid huge dividends.

In 1961, Fireball Roberts and Joe Weatherly swept the Daytona 500 qualifying races and two days later, Marvin Panch followed with a victory in the 500-miler. By the end of the season, Pontiac had won 30 of the 50 races on the schedule including eight by Weatherly, two by Roberts, seven by Junior Johnson and three by an up-and-coming newcomer named David Pearson. (Continued)