Beginning in 1950 and carrying through the 1970 season, NASCAR’s top-tier division was called the Grand National Series. In 1971, NASCAR began selling naming rights, with the series co-branded as the Winston Cup Grand National Series, which lasted through 1985. For 1986, Grand National was dropped from the series name as sponsorship completely took over and it was simply referred to as the NASCAR Winston Cup Series through 2003.

During this celebrated time in stock car racing, the likes of Dale Earnhardt, Darrell Waltrip, and Terry Labonte were building their legacy, while legends such as Bobby Allison and Richard Petty continued to give the younger drivers a run for their money. In this era, many drivers were behind the wheel of a G-body GM car—a Chevrolet Monte Carlo, Pontiac’s Grand Prix and LeMans, or a Buick Regal. Darrell Waltrip famously won back-to-back NASCAR Winston Cup Grand National championships in 1981 and 1982 behind the wheel of a Buick Regal stock car, which set the stage for then Buick General Manager Lloyd Reuss to revive the brand’s performance image.

Buick debuted the Grand National in 1982 as a limited-production performance offering based on the Regal. Each car was finished in two-tone Silver Mist over Charcoal Gray, apart from a single custom-built example finished in all black for Richard Petty, who was coming off a 1981 season in which he won his seventh and last Daytona 500 behind the wheel of a Buick Regal stock car. The Grand National would take a one-year hiatus in 1983, returning to the model lineup for 1984 with a sinister look that has become iconic, immortalized in a television commercial set to George Thorogood’s “Bad to the Bone,” with lyrics specific to the car. The new Grand Nationals sported a menacing black exterior, aluminum wheels, upgraded suspension, and a potent turbocharged V-6 engine. The 1987 model year would be the last for Buick’s celebrated Grand National.

While initial owner history is unknown, this Grand National’s second owner hailed from Connecticut and, according to the CARFAX report on file, owned the car from approximately 1993 to 2012. In May 2012, a family from Massachusetts acquired the Grand National, completing minor cosmetic work throughout their ownership. Information from their ownership is on file. The Vehicle Vault Collection acquired this Buick in January 2013 and it has been on display in the collection since. The car is accompanied by a 1987 Buick buyer’s guide, an owner’s manual, the car’s broadcast sheet, and copy of vehicle invoice. The five-digit odometer displayed 13,043 miles at the time of cataloguing, which is believed to be 113,043 miles based on the CARFAX report.

Rooted in an iconic era of 1980s stock car dominance, the Grand National name carries significant weight and remains a legendary tribute to Buick’s NASCAR heritage.