REVEALED: The True Story of the Infamous Tabasco NASCAR Car

Back in 1997 and 1998, the International Sports Management Racing team roped in a brand new sponsor for their campaign. Soon, Todd Bodine’s infamous #35 Tabasco Pontiac was born. However, this does raise a question about why it was so infamous in NASCAR circles. The McIlhenny company was really invested in the deal and even came out with multiple die-cast cars. The ISM team had grand plans to run full-time in 1997.

However, things did not go to plan, and what made it worse was that this was Tabasco’s first time in NASCAR. The biggest hurdle was that at that time, the sport had a ‘previous owner points’ policy to guarantee provisional qualifying. Of course, since this was a brand new team, they had to qualify for each race.

As a result of this massive oversight, the team did not make it to the first five races, including the Daytona 500. To make matters all the more humiliating, out of the first 13 races, poor old Todd Bodine only made it to a paltry five. On the bright side, the Tabasco sponsors were extremely understanding and patient. Instead, they channeled their efforts into marketing the team and did a great job of it.

This NASCAR project was doomed to fail

The bad news was that International Sports Management was not so patient. What likely hammered the final nail in the coffin was that they made big changes behind the sponsors’ backs. The first person to face the chopping block was Todd Bodine. Soon, the team went through several drivers before settling for Darrell Waltrip for the Brickyard 400.

Speaking of Waltrip, he owned a Cup team, which he sold to Tyler Jet Motorsports. Ironically, TJM later bought out International Sports Management, which the team neglected to tell the sponsor. At the end of the day, Waltrip was driving for his own team after this convoluted game of musical chairs.

After a relatively decent 13th at the Brickyard 400, there was another controversial move. This time, they moved to Chevrolet from Pontiac, and that was the straw that broke the camel’s back. Tabasco insisted that the team revert back to Pontiac, even though the team knew that Pontiac was the worst manufacturer. In the end, Bodine did not return, so Waltrip saw out the remainder of the season, and he hated it. Owing to this nightmare, Tabasco has since refused to get involved in NASCAR ever again.

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