Oklahoma Woman Wins the Last Peterbilt Model 389x Built
The last Peterbilt 389x manufactured was given away at MCE. (John Sommers II for Transport Topics)
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NASHVILLE, Tenn. — An Oklahoma woman won Rush Truck Centers’ sweepstakes to give away the last Peterbilt Model 389x produced.
The winner, Jennifer Best of Pryor, Okla., was presented the keys to the shiny red tractor by Rush Enterprises CEO W.M. “Rusty” Rush during an Oct. 14 news conference at American Trucking Associations’ Management Conference & Exhibition.
Roughly 8,000 tickets were bought for the raffle. The proceeds for the sweepstakes — about $500,000 — were donated to the Wounded Warrior Project.
Jennifer said she bought the $50 raffle ticket on a whim at a recent trucking show.
Shane and Jennifer Best with Rusty Rush at the announcement. (Joe Howard/Transport Topics)
Jennifer and her husband, Shane, own a small trucking company, Shane Best Trucking, of mostly dump trucks. Jennifer said she’ll add the new 389x to the fleet.
It was an honor to present the keys to the last and only 2025 Peterbilt Model 389X to its winner, Jennifer Best, and her family during the American Trucking Associations' Management Conference and Exhibition in Nashville. #winthelast389
Read more: https://t.co/ceUTfNCZUQ pic.twitter.com/ejjs6aD2BH — Rush Truck Centers (@rushtruckcenter) October 17, 2024
“Trucking runs in our family," Jennifer said. “We took over the business from Shane’s mother. My dad was a truck driver, and both of our boys are in the business.
“When I got the call that we’d won, I was in shock. We were happy to support Wounded Warrior Project, but to win this incredible truck is unbelievable.”
Trucking has been in Best’s family for 25 years. Jennifer and Shane bought out Shane’s mother’s firm, Best Dump Trucking, about three years ago.
Jennifer Best, winner of the Rush Truck Centers sweepstakes. She and her husband, Shane, took home the Peterbilt 389x. They own Shane Best Trucking. (John Sommers II for Transport Topics)
Rush Truck Centers secured the final Model 389 with a winning bid of $1.25 million at an auction hosted by Peterbilt in February 2023. The funds from that bid were split evenly as donations to Wreaths Across America and TAT, formerly known as Truckers Against Trafficking. In addition, Peterbilt split the proceeds from selling the truck — $250,000 — between those two charities, resulting in a total donation of $750,000 to each charity.
“This is a unique and very special truck, and we knew we could do a lot of good for a lot of people with it,” Rush said. “We are immensely proud that this sweepstakes generated $500,000 for Wounded Warrior Project and the life-changing programs and services they provide at no cost to America’s injured veterans.”
“The effects of war and military service can last a lifetime for wounded veterans,” said Brea Kratzert Todd, Wounded Warrior Project vice president of business development. “Supports like Rush Enterprises and the Best family fuel the life-changing programs and services that Wounded Warrior Project delivers to warriors and their loved ones.”
On hand for the announcement was Sal Gonzalez, a former U.S. Marine and Wounded Warrior Project ambassador who in October 2004 lost part of his left leg in battle while serving in Iraq. Gonzalez offered alternatively touching and humorous reflections on his time as a Marine, noting that in just over a year as a gunner he and his unit had gotten “blown up” six times before the incident that destroyed his leg. This incident also injured his assistant gunner and killed his lieutenant, Matthew D. Lynch from Jericho, N.Y.
Gonzalez spoke of the guilt he felt after retiring from the military in 2005, knowing that others continued to fight and die overseas while he pursued a musical career in Nashville. That guilt led him to begin drinking heavily, a dark period in his life that was snapped when someone from Wounded Warrior reached out and asked him to get involved.
Sal Gonzalez sings "Heroes." (Joe Howard/Transport Topics)
Remembering that the group was second only to his parents in arriving at his bedside after he was injured, he agreed. Soon surrounded by other veterans going through similar struggles, Gonzalez said he realized, “I wasn’t the special little snowflake I thought I was.”
He has spent the ensuing years helping veterans cope with life after military service, along with counseling the families of those who are lost in battle. The impact of those experiences — including one in particular — compelled him to write a song titled “Heroes,” which he performed in the Rush booth and which features the chorus, “Heroes Ain’t the Ones Who Make it Home.”
“I was at a benefit for a young man who had lost his father,” Gonzalez said before playing the song. “And this older veteran walked up to me. He had the full Vietnam veteran’s hat and cutoff sleeves and he shook my hand and said, ‘Son, thank you for your service, you’re a hero.’ Something felt off as I sat that talking to that young man who had just lost his father. I didn’t feel like much of a hero. So I went home and I wrote this.”
The powerful song resonated with Rush himself, who said the song’s evocative lyrics were emotional “even for an old man like me.”
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