- this specially outfitted ups truck appeared in an extended "race the truck" ad campaign to promote ups's nascar sponsorship.
- the truck, a 23-foot 1990 ups p-800 package car, is equipped with a roll cage, an toyota racing development race engine, a custom transmission, and a racing suspension.
- racing star dale jarrett drove it on a lap of honor in the 2006 all-star race at the end of his nascar career.
update 12/4/19: iron horse auction has announced it will not be auctioning the ups truck as scheduled. the auction company told c/d that the would-be seller lacked a title to the truck, and after ups approached iron horse with the title, the decision was made to withdraw the vehicle from auction. iron horse said it was not clear how the seller had obtained the truck.
"ups truck" and "toyota racing development race engine" are rarely, if ever, uttered in the same sentence, and you'd never expect to see the former equipped with the latter. but ups created such a beast in the mid-2000s for its “race the truck” ad campaign, and that truck is now going to auction.
the dale jarrett ups truck was built in 2006 by mike ryan, a stunt-vehicle builder, in less than three weeks. his team took a 23-foot-long 1990 ups p-800 package car with more than 300,000 miles on the odometer, stripped it down completely, and transformed it with a fabricated roll cage, a trd race engine, a custom transmission, racing suspension and shocks, a roll cage and racing gauges, and a racing harness, among other features that have no place in a big brown truck.
on december 4, that truck is going up for auction online by iron horse auctions, with a minimum bid of $1 and a one-week period of bidding.
ups originally formulated the ad campaign featuring the truck to promote their nascar sponsorship, but as it caught on with fans, there was a push for the truck to appear on the track that became a running joke.
ups then shot another commercial of dale jarrett agreeing to race the truck to great acclaim, and he drove it around the track at the all-star race, his final event before retiring in 2008.