Pontiac Is Phased Out
Pontiac, the General Motors car that won two of the last three NASCAR Winston Cup championships, will no longer be factory supported, GM announced Tuesday.
Only five Pontiacs raced in this year’s series and GM officials said that the move for 2004 was being made to “further advance and solidify” their support for the Chevrolet Monte Carlo.
Tony Stewart won the 2002 and Bobby Labonte the 2000 championship in Pontiacs owned by Joe Gibbs but Gibbs switched to Chevrolet for this season.
The only Pontiac drivers in Winston Cup are Johnny Benson, Ward Burton, Ricky Craven, Jason Leffler and the U.S. Army car pair of Joe Nemechek and Mike Skinner, who fill in for the injured Jerry Nadeau.
“This is a surprise,” Benson said. “I might have driven the most races of anyone in a Pontiac in recent years. We heard rumors at the beginning of the season about Pontiac not continuing, but I figured it would be in a few years.”
-- Shav Glick
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