This is the beginning of the tale of Pontiac’s final season in NASCAR. In the middle of the 2002 season, Joe Gibbs Racing, which later won the championship with Tony Stewart, announced that they would switch to Chevrolet in 2003. Not long after, A.J. Foyt Racing would make the switch to Dodge, leaving MB2 Motorsports as the only full-time Pontiac-powered team at this point.
Several teams would try to fill in the void by changing their engine manufacturer to Pontiac, but aside from a lucky victory at Darlington, their performance was underwhelming, to say the least.