Jim Southworth from Chetek bought one of Dale Earnhardt, Jr.'s obsolete number eight cars.

Jim Southworth bought Dale Earnhardt, Jr.'s number eight car just a month ago, and he says he's a lucky guy to have it.

"I ended up with the car. I couldn't believe it,” he says.

Last month while visiting his son-in-law at work, Jim Southworth saw the beauty sitting in the shop, in pieces.

"I said, ‘What are you doing with this car?’ And he said, ‘We're taking some of the stuff out.’ I said ‘Why?’ He said, ‘We're going take it to a shredder,” Southworth explains.

He says racing teams usually shred the work horses when they're done with them so they don't end up out in the public.

"He said you know they're not for sale. I can't sell you that car,” Southworth says.

But since his daughter works for Dale Earnhardt, Incorporated, Southworth says the Earnhardt family sold him a number eight car Junior drove in the 2004 season.

"So he said, ‘I suppose. Seeing as Marie's my buddy, I'll have to sell you the car’," says Southworth.

And he says the eardrum-piercing rumbler wasn't a bad price, although he won't tell us exactly how much.

"It was reasonable, really reasonable,” he says.

So after a few years of being a show car, and before it headed to the shredder, Southworth snagged a piece of history...under two conditions.

"I can't race it and I can't put it on E-bay,” he says.

Southworth says he's not sure what he'll do with the car in the future, but he says it'll make a nice addition to the car collection he already has.

Dale Earnhardt, Jr.'s number eight car will be on display at Southworth Chevrolet in Bloomer for a few weeks.