The NASCAR Graceland Penske Taurus has one of the more storied NASCAR cars with its famous Elvis livery. This car was driven by Rusty Wallace at the inaugural Las Vegas 400 on March 1, 1998. The car was campaigned Penske Racing South, a partnership between Roger Penske and Michael Kranefuss with Paul Andrews as its crew chief. The Elvis car was stamped PK #002 when it was built and when the body was placed on, it became known as PKR #002. Results for Elvis in 1998 included:
Las Vegas 3/1/98 Qualified 10th - Finished 3rd
Darlington Southern 500 3/22/98 Qualified 14th – Finished 3rd
Texas 4/4/98 Qualified 6th - Finished 12th
California Speedway 5/2/98 Qualified 4th - Finished-34th
Charlotte World 600 5/24/98 Qualified 4th – Finished 2nd
Michigan 6/14/98 Qualified 3rd – Finished 17th
Since the car was so consistent, the car was used for the development of Roger Penske’s first NASCAR computer simulation model that included wind tunnel resting at Langley, inertial parameter and kinetic and compliance data from Ford. The car was purchased appropriately at auction in Las Vegas.