NASCAR Cup Series

Dale Jr.-designed Chevelle, No. 88 car set to auction for charity

Published Jan. 5, 2017 10:42 a.m. ET

Tom Jensen

Since Nationwide came on board as a sponsor of the No. 88 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet, Dale Earnhardt Jr. has done a lot of really good charity work on behalf of Nationwide Children's Hospital, a leading pediatric care facility and research institute.

Earnhardt, NASCAR’s most popular driver for 14 consecutive years, is about to do something very cool again.

On the evening of Jan. 21 at the Barrett-Jackson Scottsdale Collector-Car Auction, an Earnhardt-designed 1970 Chevelle Resto-Mod will cross the block at no reserve, with 100 percent of the hammer price of the car going to Nationwide Children's Hospital.

010517-nascar-dale-jr-chevelle2

There are no fees or commissions on the sale of the car: Every dime goes to the hospital to benefit the good work that it does.

And right after the Chevelle goes, Barrett-Jackson will auction off a genuine No. 88 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet SS that Earnhardt used in six races in 2014-15.

“Chassis No. 88-857 was first raced at Phoenix Raceway in February 2014, where Earnhardt led a total of 51 laps and held on for a runner-up finish after running out of fuel while leading, just half a lap shy of taking the checkered flag,” reads the catalog description.

010517-nascar-dale-jr-car

“He continued to race the chassis at short tracks in 2014, including both the April and September races at Richmond International Raceway - finishing seventh and 12th, respectively - and the July event at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, where he scored a 10th-place finish. In 2015, he raced the car in both the April and August events at Bristol Motor Speedway, earning a finish of 16th in the spring race and ninth in the fall event.”

The custom Chevelle certainly sounds awesome as well, with a modern Chevy V-8 under the hood, a reproduction body in Black Diamond metallic paint, a modern coil-over suspension system, Camaro Track Pack 20" racing wheels, Goodyear Eagle F1 Supercar tires, four-wheel disc brakes and retrimmed 2012 Camaro seats.

010517-nascar-dale-jr-chevelle-engine

“Assembly of the Chevelle came together at GM's Milford Proving Ground and started with an original '70 Chevelle frame, but almost every other component used during the car's construction is all-new, including the body,” states the auction listing.

Typically, charity cars at Barrett-Jackson fetch huge sums of money, and while it’s impossible to predict what the Earnhardt-designed Chevelle and the No. 88 race car will bring, expect the final sale prices to be substantial.

And more importantly, the sales are both for a great cause, which makes it win-win, no matter where the hammer prices end up.