It’s not every day that NASCAR drivers can get hold of a historic race car they once drove during their racing days. Call it fate or luck, Ricky Rudd made a historic discovery and purchased the iconic #28 car he drove during his time at Yates Racing. The black and yellow Havoline Ford car looked to be in pristine condition, and it’s fair to say that Rudd was able to get a bargain in a last-minute deal.

Although Ricky Rudd piloted this race car during his three-year stint at Yates Racing, he refused to call this ride his own. Rather, he paid tribute to late NASCAR driver Davey Allison, who had the most success driving the #28 Yates Racing car.

Davey Allison had close calls in the title run with the #28 car

Before Ricky Rudd took command of the race car, it was Davey Allison who had successful stints at Yates Racing. He had a total of 15 NASCAR Cup Series wins driving the #28 Ford for the team from 1989 to 1993. Allison came close to winning the championship in 1991 but was second best to legendary driver Dale Earnhardt. 1992 was a similar story, and he just couldn’t conquer Atlanta to reach the pinnacle of NASCAR racing.

He was set to have a third go at it during the 1993 season, but he lost his life in a tragic helicopter crash while flying to Talladega Superspeedway. Allison attempted to land the helicopter in the fenced area of the track infield. But he lost control of the craft and crashed; he sustained critical head injuries. Despite the efforts of the neurosurgeons, he wasn’t able to survive the accident and was pronounced dead the next morning.

It’s fair to say that the history of the #28 car is deeply attached to Davey Allison. Although Rudd was able to grab hold of the iconic race car, he couldn’t help but tip his hat towards Allison, stating that this would always be his race car. “You know, when I look at this car, I drove for Robert, I think three years there, but I always associated this 28 as being Davey Allison’s car and then Ernie Irvav. I don’t really associate my name with this car. I like it. It was a fast car; I won some races with it, but I think of Davey Allison.” Rudd said this on the Stapelton42 YouTube channel.

Well, the story about how Rudd managed to get hold of this race is intriguing as well. While Rudd was the one who had to take a hit to his pocket with this purchase, the real MVP was his friend who informed Rudd about the car’s listing on the auction house’s website. “It all came about with a good friend of mine who happens to watch websites bring a trailer, and this car came across the auction block, and by the time I found out about it, there was about 45 minutes left before the auction ended, and it was a really neat deal,” Rudd added.an

The folklore about the #28 Yates car didn’t stop there, as Ricky Rudd explained the significance of the car he had bought from the auction.

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Rudd wasn’t sure about the legitimacy of this race car

Now, let us start off where we left off. Ricky Rudd got the information about the #28 car being put on an auction through his friend. However, his buddy wasn’t sure that this particular race car wasn’t exactly built by Yates Racing in their shop, as it had a different name on the chassis. As it turned out, this particular race car was built by Rudd Performance Motorsports and was then shipped to Yates Racing with Rudd in the year 2000. It was the same car in which Rudd finished third during the fall race at Talladega Superspeedway.

Recalling the moment of history and trying to connect the dots, Rudd explained, “Robert wanted two of our cars that were unique. One of the cars that he wanted was a Speedway car that we built in the RPM shop that we finished third at Talladega in my last year as owner-driver. A little more than 90 percent sure that that’s this car right here. So that car had a short life at RPM, but it went over to the Yates operation, and that’s what made it unique to me.”

Rudd certainly found a unique piece of NASCAR racing history, and he will cherish this new purchase for quite some time.