It was a lot, but not enough.

Bidding on a 1970 Plymouth Superbird raced by Richard Petty reached $3.5 million at the Mecum Auctions event in Harrisburg, Penn., on Saturday, but fell short of the undisclosed reserve price set by the seller. The amount would've made the iconic Plymouth the most expensive NASCAR ever sold at auction, and ranked it among the top five American racing cars.

The car was owned by collecter Todd Werner, who had it authenticated and restored by Petty Enterprises.

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Petty, 82, was as the auction and told the audience "anytime you got in that car you knew you had a chance to win the race."

After the auctioneer tried to get things started with a call for $10 million, the bidding started at $1 million and ended with a phone bid of $3.5 million.

Werner sent over 40 vehicles across the block, among them Petty's 1971 Daytona 500-winning Plymouth Road Runner that sold for $412,500. He told Fox News Autos prior to the event that if the Superbird didn't sell, he wouldn't lose any sleep and would just bring it back to his collection in Florida and keep enjoying it until the next time around.

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