Dale Earnhardt's Wheaties Monte CarloOne race-car fan will have a dream fulfilled in February, when he or she wins a car that once belonged to legendary driver Dale Earnhardt. The orange No. 3 car, a Chevrolet Monte Carlo painted with the Wheaties logo, is part of a NASCAR exhibition at Orlando Science Center. Come February it will be sitting in some lucky ticket holder’s garage, after it is raffled off. Edgewood Children’s Ranch and the Make-a-Wish Foundation, Central and Northern Florida chapter, have teamed up to raffle off this one-of-a-kind race car to benefit their charitable organizations. Dale Earnhardt Sr. was killed in a crash on the last lap of the Daytona 500 on Feb. 18, 2001.

Earnhardt, known as the “Intimidator,” drove the car in five races between 1993 and 1995. The car was later moved to the show-car division. In 1997, Richard Childress Racing converted two cars from Earnhardt’s black paint scheme to the Wheaties trademark bright orange in order to promote the Winston Select Race in Charlotte, N.C.

After the race, one car was returned to the original paint scheme while the other retained the Wheaties colors. In 2001, Richard Childress Racing sold the Wheaties car.

“Mike Tuminello, a private collector in DeLand, bought the car for $60,000 and donated it last April to be auctioned off to benefit the two charities,” said Mark Hess, a board member of Edgewood Children’s Ranch and raffle co-chairman with Mark Bender of the Make-a-Wish Foundation.

“It is on display in the lobby of the Orlando Science Center during its Daytona 500 exhibit, which ends Jan. 6. After that it will go to Gainesville to be displayed in the Brasington Cadillac dealership,” he said.

Raffle tickets are $20, payable to either charity. They may be purchased online at (windalescar.com) up to 4 p.m. Feb. 23.

The drawing will be in Old Town in Kissimmee at 5 p.m. the same day. Ticket holders do not need to be present to win.(orlandosentinel.com)

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8 Responses to “Bid to win Dale Earnhardt’s race car”  

  1. 1 hot rod todd Registered User

    i would love to get my hands on this!!

  2. 2 Sam

    That baby will go HIGH.

  3. 3 gigolo george Registered User

    Now this is what I call a conversation piece! It’s hard to believe that someone parted with this car but I thank them for doing so. God bless ya, Mr Tuminello.

  4. 4 Fisha695 Registered User

    I know somebody that has a Dale Sr and Dale Jr road course cars, (they were run at the Glen) and to be honest all they do is sit around in his garage (that is huge). IDKY but there is just something about cars sitting around, especally race cars that irks me. I mean all these cars like this are eligible for hundreds of historic racing series, so go race them and treat them like what they are, RACE CARS.

    Just my 2¢

  5. 5 mother

    My question is, “How can you BID on the car, when you have to PURCHASE a raffle ticket????????” Just wondering, did I read or see something that was not there?? They should get their facts or story straight before they print it! But I like the idea……

  6. 6 Bob

    It would fit in my living room but the sliding glass doors arn’t wide enough to get it in… Dam

  7. 7 Fisha695 Registered User

    mother wrote:

    My question is, “How can you BID on the car, when you have to PURCHASE a raffle ticket????????” Just wondering, did I read or see something that was not there?? They should get their facts or story straight before they print it! But I like the idea……

    Buying a raffle ticket is putting a bid on it, more specifically it is buying a chance on it.

  8. 8 John

    That car is very,very cooooooool! I just don’t understand why someone would sell that car.

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