Though Pontiac gets the nod for being the first at bluntly creating lightweight panels for their Drag cars, it was Mopar that is remembered for instigating the craze one notch further with their out the box lightweight uni-body cars. Hence the Maxie's and Hemi 2% cars of 1964.
With that in mind, all people assume that the Mopar camps are always reinventing stuff on the sly, and they're right. The word Skunkworks probably started with the Ramchargers in Detroit.
I personally like a recipe that includes those covert Detroit practices along with original Stock car and Formula 1 schemes.