The Die is Cast 5: Dale Earnhardt Jr. 2014 Daytona 500 Raced-Win Elite

After Dale Earnhardt Jr. won the Dayton 500 early this year, Lionel Racing announced that they would be making a Raced-Win version of the car, which is different from your standard die-cast featuring the livery of a race car. When making the Raced-Win versions, Lionel takes photos of the car as it appears in Victory Lane and then does up the bodywork to resemble it, confetti, race damage, and all. In races where a winner has shredded the tires doing the usual doughnuts on the track, the tires of the die-cast are flat. Earnhardt didn't do a lot of rubbing or wrecking in this race, so there isn't a lot of damage shown on the car, just a little scraping on the front of the wheel arches. The biggest feature on this particular car is the big piece of black tape that was stuck to Earnhardt's grill.

Soon after Lionel put the car up for pre-order on their website, the car was on track to become the best-selling die-cast in Lionel's history, beating out the car from Junior's previous win in 2012. With a large print run, this might not wind up being the most valuable collectible in the world, but I am pretty happy with it. I ordered the Elite Version, which has better components and more features than a standard car. This one is serial-numbered, being # 1873 / 2388 pieces made.

On this car the hood opens to show the engine, the flaps on the roof open up, and the trunk opens to reveal the fuel system. The net in the driver's window can be opened and re-secured, and if your finger is small enough you can reach in there and move the steering wheel, which turns the front wheels from side to side.

There were a few other things in the box with the car. The first thing is a Certificate of Authenticity with the car's serial number written in. The Raced-Win versions of cars always get a Winner sticker and often a bag of confetti collected from Victory Lane after the race. This car also includes a little card with a picture of Dale Earnhardt Jr. and some of his stats from the race. It's a pretty cool car and the first Raced-Win car in my collection.