Fireball Roberts started the 1963 NASCAR racing season in a Pontiac. This was the Banjo Matthews ride from mid-1962, after leaving five years behind with Smokey Yunick. He started fourth and finished third in the January opener at Riverside. The following month, in Daytona, he took the pole on qualifying day with the fastest speed and in the first hundred mile qualifying race finished sixth. Tiny Lund won the Daytona 500 in Marvin Panch's place, a famous story but it was Fireball on the pole for the start, finishing twenty-first with a bad engine. Tiny Lund won that race drafting Fireball, saving his tires and fuel, an incredible feat. Fireball did not run again for a month, where he finished second at Atlanta behind his future team mate, Fred Lorenzen. This was the last time he drove a Pontiac ever, on March 17, 1963 in this car.