2003 NASCAR Winston Cup Series (Simpsonverse)

The 2003 NASCAR Winston Cup Series was the 55th season of professional stock car racing in the United States and the 32nd modern-era Cup Series season. The season began on February 8 at the Daytona International Speedway with the Budweiser Shootout and ended on November 16 at Homestead-Miami Speedway with the Ford 400. Despite only winning one race throughout the whole season, Matt Kenseth, driving the No.17 Ford for Roush Racing, was strongly consistent following the lone win, and was crowned the Winston Cup champion. His only win came in the third race of the 36 race season. Chevrolet took home the NASCAR Manufacturers' Championship after capturing 19 wins and 264 points over second-place finisher Dodge, who had nine wins and 203 points. Ford finished the year third with seven wins and 200 points, and Pontiac finished fourth with one win and 125 points.

This was the final year for Winston being the title sponsor of the Cup Series. Winston had been the title sponsor for NASCAR since 1971. After 33 years, Winston decided not to renew its sponsorship. NASCAR announced a tiered sponsorship model for the 2004 season. This was also the last full time season for Pontiac until its return in 2019. Pontiac had been with NASCAR on 2 different occasions. The first was from 1949 to 1964, then they returned in 1981 and continued full time until the end 2003, though a few teams ran Pontiacs on a limited basis in 2004, and they continued running in the Busch Series through 2005 and ARCA as late as 2007. 2003 was also the final year the old body style could legally be run. In addition, this was the final season for eight-time champion Dale Earnhardt, who retired to focus on running his race team, Dale Earnhardt, Inc., and act as a mentor to his son Dale Earnhardt, Jr.

Manufacturer Changes

 * Following the discontinuation of the Camaro, Chevrolet switched its second model to the Impala.
 * For 2003, Pontiac only fielded the Grand Prix, due to the discontinuation of the Firebird.