The norm in NASCAR for old and wrecked cars is to recycle as much of it as possible. Some are sold to collectors to be placed in museums and others become show pieces. In a few extraordinary cases, the cars are left to rot away in automobile graveyards. But is there a way for drivers to become the owners of the cars that they drive?
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The social media team of Joe Gibbs Racing recently revealed through a video on their YouTube channel that the team has indeed gifted cars to its drivers on certain occasions. Dave Alpern said, appearing on the video, “We have in the past gifted cars to some of our drivers. Whether it is Kyle Busch’s championship car, [or] a Matt Kenseth last win car.”
He continued to reveal that Denny Hamlin has a couple of the cars with which he won Daytona 500s in his garage at home. If a driver reaches a significant milestone or achievement, teams give away the cars as a token of appreciation. Teams also donate cars to the Hall of Fame or other museums when they help the driver do something extraordinary.
What happens to wrecked NASCAR cars?
Cars seldom die in NASCAR. For a sport that is pretty heavy spending on mechanical parts, it is frugal when it comes to discarding parts. Louis Gordon, who owns a company that specializes in shredding damaged race cars, said in an interview with the Florida-Times Union, “We’ve had some drivers come in with their [race] cars, and they wanted them pressed into a cube they could use for a coffee table, or something like that.”
Almost every part of a wrecked car can be reused in some manner. Frames and engines are sent to yards like Gordon’s to be remade into steel. Tires can be cut into door mats. Oil and grease are refined to be used by trucking companies or the U.S. Military and Postal Service.
Jimmie Johnson’s crew chief Chad Knaus said on the matter, “We don’t get rid of a lot of cars. A car has to be pretty bad if we say it’s a ‘do not resuscitate.’ We send everything out to be recycled. You won’t find anything in the garbage can.” In short, every NASCAR car, wrecked or intact, has an afterlife in which it comes to be of use.
