In the South, it’s no big deal that Dale Jr. has a lot of wrecked cars in his yard

The fate of demolished NASCARs is always a curiosity to fans, so it was news this week when Dale Earnhardt Jr. revealed that his No. 8 Budweiser Chevy Monte Carlo is now part of his infamous “NASCAR graveyard” near Mooresville.

A story posted Monday on DaleJr.com showed the twisted and rusting remnants of the car sits without tires in a thickly wooded part of what has been dubbed Dirty Mo Acres. The reported 200 acres of property is home to Earnhardt and is rumored to host a dirt go cart track and replica western town.

Keeping cars in one’s yard – preferably up on cinder blocks and under a big tree – is a rural tradition in the South, so it would seem Earnhardt’s junk yard isn’t so shocking.

The site has become a “secret” resting place for Earnhardt’s hand-picked race-car wreckage, according to a story posted in June by Jalopnik.com. Among the newer ones is Danica Patrick’s No. 10 Wonder Woman car she wrecked during the Go Bowling 500, the site reported.

In an interview with Yahoo! Sports, Earnhardt explained in 2012 that the site is a historical tribute to race cars: “I got about 50 or 60 cars out there and I didn't buy any of them. We get a forklift or a tractor with a forklift or front-end loader and just carry it into the woods and just set it out there somewhere.”

The No. 8 Budweiser Monte Carlo is one of three original inhabitants of the graveyard, according to DaleJr.com.

The car, which is just a shell, was originally placed on a wooden structure that has since rotted away, reported DaleJr.com.

In the video posted in June by Jr. Motorsports, truck driver Sunny Lunsford explains the ritualistic practice of putting cars on the property started in 2005.

“It was Dale’s idea,” he says in the video. “We started about putting muscle cars out here and making a little graveyard like an oak tree getting the engines and just hanging them from the trees limbs. Then we just started doing the crashed up race cars and we got plenty of those.”

Dale Jr. fans were dying to know more about the car’s future after the story was published Monday. Many took to Facebook to ask questions.

“I know a lot of people who would love to pick that up and make it look like new. It's a shame to just let it sit there,” said Travis Wagner of Gallup, New Mexico, on Facebook.

“I would so want this car...I'll come get it,” posted Amy Harper of Logan, Ohio.

“Ii would like to have it in my front yard,” wrote Gary Holloway of Lexington, Tennessee.

This story was originally published November 13, 2017 at 3:32 PM with the headline "In the South, it’s no big deal that Dale Jr. has a lot of wrecked cars in his yard."