Upon learning that Presley’s Stutz had been farmed out for promotional duty at a Nascar track, some Elvis fans were less than pleased.

“It’s sad that Elvis Presley Enterprises took the car out of the Graceland exhibit for this event,” Robin Rosaaen, president and founder of the All The King’s Things fan club in Las Vegas, said in a email. “I remember in the early years at Graceland when this car was out back under the carport area for the fans to enjoy up close and even sit in the drivers seat.”

Image Dale Earnhardt Jr. takes Elvis Presley's 1973 Stutz Blackhawk III onto the track at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Credit... Chuck Burton/Associated Press

Disappointment over how the car was used was not limited to veteran fans.

“The car is a piece of history and should of been left alone,” Will O’Rourke, 16, founder of an Elvis Presley fan club on Facebook, said in an email. “You can’t take the Declaration of Independence and sign your name at the bottom of it, because it destroys the history behind it. I really don’t like how the car left Graceland to be driven as some kind of promotion.”

Gary Hahn, vice president of marketing and media for Elvis Presley Enterprises, said in an email that it was his belief that, other than a member of the restoration team who took the car on a brief test drive after this year’s preservation work was completed, no one had driven the car since Presley’s last drive. He said the car was not restored, but “preserved” to bring it back to operating condition while keeping its Elvis-era patina intact.