Dale Earnhardt Jr. has turned part of his property near Mooresville, North Carolina, into an unusual collection of racing history. More than 75 wrecked race cars are scattered across his estate, which includes a private “Racecar Graveyard” and a Wild West-style town called Whisky River.According to NASCAR, the idea began with cars that Earnhardt’s JR Motorsports team had damaged while competing in late-model racing. The team had spent money building the cars, so instead of sending the wrecked vehicles to be scrapped, Earnhardt began storing them in the woods around his property. Over time, the collection grew and became a place for cars with links to different moments in NASCAR racing.Earnhardt has also imagined that the collection could remain there long after he is gone. He has earlier explained that he hoped people in the distant future might walk through the woods, discover the wrecked cars and wonder why they were there. “Just like that Western town I built,” Earnhardt said, referring to Whisky River. “It will be there hopefully long after I’m gone, and somebody will walk back there and go, ‘What in the hell is this doing here? And who put it here?’ And then my name will come up, and they’ll remember me,” he added.The collection is not arranged like a conventional museum. Some cars have been used as trail markers, while others have been placed in unusual locations around the property. Earnhardt said there are also separate car parts, including sides and noses, as well as hoods hanging from trees.
How race car graveyard began
Earnhardt’s collection goes back to the period when JR Motorsports was competing in late models. Rather than throwing away cars after they were wrecked, the team started keeping them on the property. Earnhardt said around half of the cars in the woods were connected to his company.The wrecked vehicles did not simply sit unused from the beginning. According to Earnhardt, some were used for target practice, while others became markers along trails. As more race teams heard about his interest in old and damaged cars, the collection expanded beyond vehicles connected to his own team.One of the cars came from Brad Keselowski’s family. It had been owned by Keselowski’s father and was crashed by Dennis Setzer during a Nationwide race at Talladega. Another is one of Keselowski’s old trucks, with its front end buried in a creek.Earnhardt also managed to collect cars connected to some memorable NASCAR incidents. One example is the car Juan Pablo Montoya was driving when he struck a jet dryer at Daytona. Chip Ganassi donated that car, but with a condition that photographs of it should not be taken.Another vehicle in the collection is the Jimmie Johnson car that was penalised over its C-posts at Daytona and was wrecked early in that race.
Some wrecked race cars were placed around Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s property.
More cars kept arriving
Earnhardt continued adding vehicles whenever teams were willing to give them away. In 2014, two more cars arrived after they were wrecked at Kansas. They belonged to Justin Allgaier and David Gilliland.For the Allgaier car, Earnhardt simply contacted his friend Steve Addington, who was the crew chief and competition director for owner Harry Scott Jr.’s team. Earnhardt explained why he made the request, “I know Harry Scott pretty well, so I figured if they were going to throw it away, I could at least have it.”The collection had become large enough by then that Earnhardt could not say exactly how many cars were on his property. The cars were spread across the woods, with additional parts and pieces stored in different places.That became a problem when fans started asking whether they could visit the graveyard. Earnhardt said he felt bad that people could not simply come and see the collection because it was located on his private property.“The hard part is, people want to know if there’s tours or if they can come look at it,” Earnhardt said. “So I feel kind of bad, because it’s on my property,” he added.
One car was missing for a year
By 2019, the collection had grown to more than 75 cars and had become known as the “Racecar Graveyard” at Earnhardt’s Dirty Mo Acres estate.The size of the collection even meant that Earnhardt could lose track of individual cars. He had said he spent about a year looking for one particular vehicle on his own property, Sporting News reported.The missing car was Wayne Jesel’s land speed car, which had been converted from an old Xfinity car. Earnhardt explained that these cars were used on airport runways and could travel more than 200 mph over a one-mile distance from a standing start.“I’ve been looking for this car for about a year. Deep in the Racecar Graveyard is Wayne Jesel’s land speed car that was converted from an old Xfinity car,” Earnhardt wrote on Facebook.He added that the mystery was partly because his property manager did not tell him where new cars were placed. “My property manager never tells me where he puts the new additions. That just adds to the mystery of the graveyard,” Earnhardt wrote.The collection has therefore become more than a storage area for damaged race cars. Each vehicle represents a different part of racing history, while the woods around Dirty Mo Acres have become the setting where those cars remain.Earnhardt has described the cars as vehicles that were once fast and loud but are now sitting among the forest undergrowth. Some have faded and suffered years of exposure, while others remain relatively well preserved. His website says the common link between them is that each has a story and has been placed in the graveyard because of that history.Earnhardt has also shared photographs of several cars from the collection on social media. But despite the growing number of wrecked vehicles around his property, there was at least one car he hoped would never join them- his Superman-themed No. 88 car for the Coca-Cola 600. He wanted that car to make it all the way to Victory Lane instead.