Why did GM used to have so many brands in NASCAR and why did they get rid of them?

Question

GM had Oldsmobiles, Buicks, Pontiacs and Chevorlets all running in NASCAR at one time. Then they axed the Buicks and Olsmobiles. Then about 10 years later Gm got rid of Pontiac.

Answer 1

they lost billions last year . so the fact they still sponsor racing at all is amazing.

Answer 2

GM made the decision as a result of cost cutting, it would be more cost effective to race under one nameplate, and not to have to support the other nameplates with parts and technical assistance.

Answer 3

The old addage "What wins on Sunday sells on Monday" is what they believed in...so they were "stacking the deck" so to speak. They began to phase them out when they finally realized that Buick and Oldsmobile owners weren't the biggest NASCAR fans. Pontiac's departure was Pontiac's new brand mgr's decision to make Pontiac a "performance" brand again...that's why you see them in the Rolex series etc...NASCAR just didn't fit the image they wanted to project.

Answer 4

I don't know about Buick and Oldsmobile, but I know that Pontiac was a brand decision to get in and a brand decision to get out. They did okay, remember Joe Gibbs used to run Pointiacs until they (Pontiac) got out of NASCAR. There are a lot of expenses involved in runnig in NASCAR and in order to be successful, each brand needs to have a number of people involved to assist their teams in the sport. Because GM has been doing poorly for a number of years, I feel sure that $$$ was one reason that Pontiac pulled out. Hopefully, GM was able to move some of those dollars over to the Chevy programs.

Answer 5

I think the economy was a lot different back then. Also when there was all of those manufacturers there was a sense of pride in American cars. Now it seems NASCAR is getting diverse with the attraction of foreign cars. It costs so much more to operate these days that these manufactures can't spend a whole lot on R&D with two or three brands of cars.

Answer 6

im not really sure but it seemed a little unfair to me that all of those gm teams would be able to compete at the same time, it seems like they would get an advantage, i could be wrong.  

Answer 7

The same happened to chrysler...They had the Plymouth line...They were trying to compete with foreign car makers and had to downsize

Answer 8

Maybe they felt like they were competing against themselves. They probably decided to focus their racing research and technology into one make and model instead of many different ones.  

Answer 9

It was easier and more economical for GM to support one make of car(Chevy). Nowadays Buick's geared towards old folks who drive 15 mph below the speed limit and Oldsmobile is gone. You do however see Pontiac in other forms of racing, most notably the Rolex Grand Am series with the GXP.