Tony Stewart seems to have started something out in the desert. The two-time Sprint Cup champion helped auction off one of his No. 20 Chevrolets from Joe Gibbs Racing a year ago at the Barrett-Jackson collector car auction in Scottsdale, Ariz., and enlisted $300,000 for the Darrell Gwynn Foundation. This year, Stewart isn't back, but plenty of others in the NASCAR world are.
The biggest draw so far was auctioned off Saturday night when Jeff Gordon's 2006 No. 24 Chevrolet Monte Carlo fetched a mere $500,000 with the help of car owner Rick Hendrick standing on the auction block.
The Monte Carlo -- no longer a use to the team thanks to NASCAR's full-time switch to the Car of Tomorrow in 2008 -- was sold to collector Ron Pratt and included Hendrick's promise of a trip for the winner to any race as his personal guest. Such a trip for Pratt will include a chance to meet the driver of his choice in addition to sitting on Gordon's pit box for the event.
The proceeds from the auction will head to the National Marrow Donor Program. Hendrick has been involved with the program for well over a decade after a personal bout with lukemia nearly took the team owner's life.
Other NASCAR-related festivities at Barrett-Jackson (catch coverage of the event on SPEED with Bob Varsha and Mike Joy) include a P-51a Jack Roush Ford Mustang and a 1970 Plymouth Superbird custom tribute driven to the auction block by Richard Petty being sold. Another Tony Stewart Sprint Cup car is expected to head across the block this year, but the driver won't be in attendance due to his attendance of the Chili Bowl Nationals midget race in Tulsa, Okla.
Rusty Wallace helped sell a custom NASCAR 60th-anniversary motorcycle from Destination Daytona on Thursday for $50,000 with proceeds headed to the Victory Junction Gang Camp, according to a press release from the event organizers.
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