Make-A-Wish Teen Surprised With Dream Car at Indianapolis Motor Speedway

— -- An Indiana teen who was diagnosed with non-Hodgkins lymphoma at the age of 16 saw his dream come true on Tuesday when he was surprised with his dream car at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

The car, a 1974 Pontiac Grand Ville, had sat in a chicken coop for nearly 20 years before it was gifted to the teen, J.D. Casper, nearly three years ago by his uncle.

Casper’s old car had been totaled in a crash around Thanksgiving of that year. Just a few months after Casper, now 19, received the car, he also received the diagnosis of non-Hodgkins lymphoma.

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Casper told the Make-A-Wish Foundation his wish was to fully restore his Pontiac to its former glory, a Make-A-Wish official told ABC News.

“J.D. is a huge vintage car fan and he saw the car’s potential,” said Cathy Predmore, vice president of marketing and communications for Make-A-Wish’s Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana chapter, which planned the surprise.

Casper, who could not be reached today by ABC News, thought that on Tuesday he was just going to the Speedway for a tour.

Instead, he was surprised by race car driver J.R. Hildebrand, who took Casper on a few laps in a pace car and then brought him to a closed garage.

When the garage's doors opened, Casper saw his friends and family, and his prized, completely restored Pontiac Grand Ville.

“It was just pure excitement,” Casper told local ABC affiliate WRTV just moments after the surprise. “I was so shocked. I never imagined the car being able to look like this.”

Predmore says the car was restored thanks to donations and in-kind work, most of it done by Reynolds Body Shop, a local Indianapolis business.

“He was able to get in it right away and drive it around the track,” Predmore said of Casper. “He was just so amazed and so humbled by it.”

“He was thanking us but really we thank J.D. because he’s such an inspiration to everyone around him,” she said.

The new car and the freedom it brings come at a particularly opportune time for Casper because he has completed his chemotherapy and radiation treatments.

“Now I’m in remission and I’m done and cured and I can just live my life,” Casper told WRTV. “Relax and just let it ride.”