A decade ago this year, Street Outlaws headliner Justin “Big Chief” Shearer debuted the follow-up to his famed 1972 Pontiac LeMans with a Pro Modified-style Pontiac Firebird that became affectionately known as the “CrowMod.” Introduced to the show at arguably the height of its popularity, it became one of the most well-known race cars of the last quarter century, and was impressively versatile — Shearer drove it to number one on Oklahoma City’s 405 Top 10 list, put it in the threes in the Radial versus The World category, and even entered it in Pro Modified at the sport’s most prestigious drag race, the NHRA U.S. Nationals at Indianapolis.

Photo credit: Lamar Sutton II/4Ever Grudge

For the better part of that decade since, however, the car has been more of a conversation starter between Shearer and his fans on social media, who would regularly inquire about the future of the Pontiac-powered machine that’s been resting in the background of his popular YouTube videos.

Last year, Shearer reached out to Texas grudge racer Tyler Lowman for support in finding a new home for the car. Lowman and his team owner, Chino Ho, have a number of cars in their stable, which until recently included an older and heavier Pro Modified-style Camaro. As Lowman, who drives and manages Ho’s racing operation, that call proved to be a case of “the right place at the right time.”

“Justin reached out to me about four months ago and said, ‘I know you guys have a 275 no-time Pro Mod…if you know anybody looking for a real lightweight one, I’d be interested in selling the CrowMod,” Lowman explains. “He gave me a number and a list of all the details and just said if I know anybody interested to let him know. It just worked out that the Pro Mod that Chino had that I’d been racing was an old, outdated car. I called Chino about it and sent him some photos, and the deal just worked out.”

Gone is the twin-turbo, small-block Pontiac that Shearer proudly kept between the frame rails, replaced with an older 565-inch Pro Line Racing-built big-block Chevrolet with twin Precision Gen2 94mm turbos, all managed by a Holley EFI system. Dave Deramus with DBomb Tuning calls the shots with the engine and did all of the wiring, while standout no-prep star Isaac Preston of NEXT Motorsports gives direction on the chassis tune-up remotely from his home in Kentucky.

Astute ”Big Chief” fans will recall that the Firebird was a striking blue when he purchased it and was then wrapped in the more familiar matte white scheme. Ho, who owns a paint and body shop, removed the wrap and made some cosmetic repairs — along with the addition of grafting a larger cowl on the nose to clear the taller big-block Chevrolet engine — but otherwise kept the original color. They also re-badged the car as a GTO.

Despite its outward appearance as just another Firebird or Camaro-bodied Pro Mod, Lowman certainly recognizes the significance of this particular car and how it will carry increased interest from fans when it returns to the racetrack.

“I think every drag racer out there watched Street Outlaws and remembers this car — hell, I was probably still in high school when I was watching this car on TV — so it’s kind of cool that it’s sitting in my garage and I get to walk outside and work on it and drive it,” Lowman says. “Chino lets me operate the car anyway I see fit, just like if it were my own, so that’s pretty neat to have it and be able to drive it.”

The Houston-based team will campaign the car on 275 drag radials in grudge, shootout, and no-time racing events in and around their home base, with plans this season to travel to Rockingham, North Carolina for a Carolina N/T race, as well. The car will be re-debuted at the upcoming Big Jake’s March Mania V no-time shootout at Xtreme Raceway Park in Ferris, Texas, where a possible $200,000 winner’s payday will be on the line. They’ll also run Big Jake’s fall race, with other smaller events in between.

Along with support from Ho, who Lowman says relishes the high-stakes element of grudge racing, as well as Deramus and Preston, Lowman’s wife, Kylee is also a big part of making the whole thing possible.

As far as the name for the car — because a grudge car isn’t a grudge car without one —  Lowman says, “it’s already airbrushed in the grille and Chino is keeping it as the CrowMod.”

Much like Shearer’s original “Crow,” this one, too, will live on.

Photos courtesy 4Ever Grudge