I received a completely unexpected text message in early December from drag racer and fellow North Carolinian Chris Croom when he sent me a photo and asked, “Hey, isn’t this your old Sprinter van?” As I opened the attached photo, my heart literally began to race with excitement. I couldn’t believe what I was looking at: the original DI Dodge Sprinter van that I retired after the 2017 season and sold to a man from around the Raleigh area who told me he wanted to do some local food vending with it.
[Editor’s Note: This story originally appeared in DI #192, the Photo Annual Issue, in January / February of 2025.]
The last time I saw the DI Sprinter, it was pulling out of my driveway eight years ago, headed to its new home. Naturally, I had tons of questions for Chris regarding the whereabouts of my beloved vehicle. Turns out, Croom was working at a jobsite near the Outer Banks of North Carolina, when he happened to look next door and see a vehicle that looked oddly familiar, weather-worn and sinking into the earth. I’m not sure the vehicle was used for very much food vending, as it looks to have been planted in its current resting spot for a while.
The story of how I first acquired this vehicle is one I’ll always look back on fondly, having first laid eyes on it 16 years ago by way of an eBay auction! It was located in northeastern New York, and was listed on eBay by a local dealership. One glance at this vehicle and I knew I had to have it, so I began placing bids until I outlasted all the other interested parties and won the auction!
Afterwards, I bought a one-way plane ticket to Albany, New York, and the folks at the dealership were kind enough to pick me up at the airport. We did the paperwork later that same day, and I left New York driving my new toy. I had never so much as sat behind the wheel of a Sprinter van before buying this one, I just knew I wanted one to drive around the country to drag races! I researched the cargo dimensions and realized I could fit a golf cart in the thing, along with tons of other gear without having to tow a trailer.
It was refrigerator-white in color (as most of them are) so I commissioned the supremely-talented Chuck Chapman (who’s painted many race cars in the area) to spray an eye-catching design dreamed up by famed motorsports artist Eddie Hollon. I couldn’t have been more pleased with the outcome, and the DI Sprinter made its public debut at the Shriners Drag Racing and Hot Rod Expo at the Greensboro Coliseum in early 2009.
My local Farmington Dragway was the first of many…and I do mean MANY dragstrips I visited in this vehicle. Soon after I got it, I struck out to Baytown, Texas, for an ADRL race, then embarked on an extensive trek through the Midwest. Each winter I’d migrate South and hit some races, and I’d always take the scenic route home by way of Highway A1A, which runs alongside the ocean in Florida.
I made that trip many times, and would occasionally even drive the Sprinter on the beach in Daytona. One of the hotel groundskeepers assured me I wouldn’t sink, and thankfully I never once got the thing stuck…at least not on the beach! One time late at night, I decided to park on the side of the road beside the ocean and let the waves put me to sleep, and indeed, it was rather peaceful until about 3:30 a.m. when a member of law enforcement began banging on the side of the vehicle, politely informing me I couldn’t sleep beside the ocean in a cargo van. Who knew?
I have great memories of driving the Sprinter up to New Jersey’s Old Bridge Township Raceway Park in Englishtown for Dave Hance’s Shakedown at E-Town. Afterwards, I’d drive up to visit my relatives in north Jersey. Even though my roots are deeply southern, I’ve enjoyed visiting New York City over the years. I used to drive the Sprinter through downtown Brooklyn, and even though it’s a pretty culturally-diverse locale, the DI Sprinter would still get some inquisitive looks!
After eight years of chasing races in the thing, the Sprinter had just over 439,000 miles on the odometer, and understandably, it was beginning to be slightly unreliable. I remember telling the guy who bought it that it would likely do well in a local food vending situation, but I was ready to retire it from cross-country driving. I always wondered how things turned out for the man and his food vending endeavors. I hope he got a few good years out of this vehicle, ’cause it sure played an important role in my first eight years of chasing races full-time for Drag Illustrated.
To me, learning the whereabouts of this vehicle is the loose equivalent of the excitement someone else might experience by pulling a vintage Funny Car out of a barn! And while from the looks of things, this old van has definitely seen its better days, the same could even be said about yours truly! Regardless, I had some of the best times of my life chasing races in this worn-out cargo van.
This story was originally published on May 7, 2025.
The post On the Road: Rediscovering the Original DI Sprinter After Eight Years first appeared on Drag Illustrated.