Thanks. WVU. The seller also said that she had several of her cards signed over the years at autograph sessions (Petty, Allison, Marcis, Langley) Some of the other people she knew who collected cards told her she was ruining her cards by getting them signed, but she wanted them signed anyway. Her complete set is clean and does not contain autographs.
She believes the reason there seems to be a lot of Elmo Langley cards around is because he had a stash of his card that he would hand out after his career had ended and he was driving the pace car for NASCAR.
This can't be said of many items on eBay, but perhaps she has left some money on the table by offering her cards as BINs rather than at auction. I don't know if I overpaid, underpaid or paid just right for the Petty card? The Baker, Langley and Marcis cards can be had on eBay for well under $100 a card. I had never seen a '72 Petty card for sale before and SMR does not even list prices for the STP cards that rarely/never sell at auction.
The seller said she thinks her complete set would be worth $1,500-2,000 if she ever decided to sell it. I guess that number is probably in the ballpark, but who knows? The Lorenzen with car card is like hunting a unicorn. The mere inclusion of that card, even in damaged condition, could drive the price higher.
I know racing is nowhere near as popular or collected as other sports/subjects, but crazy things happen when unicorns like the William McKinley card from the 1932 U.S. Caramel Presidents set or Rocky Graziano from the 1948 Leaf boxing set go to auction in otherwise "affordable" sets.
Bobby Allison is also tough in the STP set. I realize that not everyone chooses to get their cards graded and some raw cards buried in collections are out there yet, but PSA has only graded three Bobby Allison cards. The PSA graded population for the STP set has been stuck at 74 total cards among the 11 different cards for a while now.