After Dale Earnhardt was killed driving in the Daytona 500 in February, racing fans and memorabilia collectors raced to buy everything they could that belonged to the NASCAR legend. The latest piece of Earnhardt history up for auction is the 1993 Volvo truck that carried his backup car from race to race on hookup.com. The company selling it claims they are not doing it to get rich quickly.
The truck had been leased by Central Carolina Trucks to Richard Childress Racing Enterprises Inc., the team Earnhardt raced for. Danny Everheart of Central Carolina said the team returned the truck because they needed to separate from Earnhardt. And out of respect for the Earnhardt family, neither Richard Childress Racing or Central Carolina Trucks wanted the sale of the truck to be met with a buyer’s frenzy.
“It was really hard for them,” Everheart said about the team. “After Dale died, they wanted to get rid of the truck because of the associations. Everyone had painful memories, and the team wanted to get a new start.”
Everheart said that even though the truck is associated with Earnhardt, he didn’t expect so many bids. The auction began March 29 with a selling price of $24,900. The current bid as of midnight Monday was $41,100, and the auction does not close until 2 p.m. April 12.
The truck had been used to haul Earnhardt’s main car, but was retired to carrying the main car – a ready-to-race backup kept available if the main Number 3 broke down.
Earnhardt did own his own racing team, but never raced as a part of it. His son, Dale Earnhardt Jr., ran the team, but Earnhardt remained a part of Richard Childress’s team, Everheart said.
Everheart said he expects the winning bid will come from either a NASCAR fan or a racing team on one of the lower circuits.
