Grave Digger was originally built in 1982 by Dennis Anderson as a
mud bogger. This first truck was assembled from salvaged parts, including the body of a red 1952 Ford pickup truck. The truck received its name when Anderson, amicably retorting trash talking from his fellow racers about the truck's salvaged parts, said, "I'll take this old junk and dig you a grave with it." Anderson gained a reputation for an all-or-nothing driving style and quickly became popular at local events. At one show, a scheduled monster truck failed to show up and Anderson, who already had large tractor tires on the truck, offered to crush cars in the absence of the full-size monster. The promoter accepted and Grave Digger was an instant success as a car crusher and led Anderson to leave mud bogging and pursue monster trucks instead. In 1984 Anderson rebuilt the truck as a true monster truck using a 1951 Ford panel van body originally sporting a silver and blue paint scheme. In 1986 Grave Digger first received its famous black graveyard paint scheme, and Anderson began racing monster trucks full-time. In 1987 and 1988 Anderson drove the truck primarily at TNT Motorsports races and became a crowd favorite for driving hard despite lacking major funding that better-known teams, like
Bigfoot, had. In 1987, Anderson beat Bigfoot in
Saint Paul, Minnesota and later won the racing event outright, on a show taped for
ESPN. It was the first major victory for Grave Digger. Anderson moved to Grave Digger 2 in 1989, with a new 1950
Chevy panel van body, while his brother Leslie Anderson drove Grave Digger 1. It was during this time that the reputation for wild passes was developed, and the popularity of the truck increased. It was also during this time that "
Bad To The Bone" began to be used as the truck's theme song. TNT recognized his rising popularity and began promoting Grave Digger heavily, especially for races on the Tuff Trax syndicated television series. This was helped by Bigfoot not racing for points in the 1989 championship, leaving Grave Digger as the most popular truck on the tour. When TNT became a part of the
United States Hot Rod Association in 1991, Anderson began running on the USHRA tour and debuted his first four-link truck, Grave Digger 3. Throughout the 1990s, the popularity of the truck grew and forced Anderson to hire other drivers to run other Grave Digger trucks. Grave Diggers 4, 5 and 8 were built to suit this purpose, and were never driven in any major capacity by Anderson. Anderson drove Grave Digger 7, a direct successor to 3, for most of the decade. It was replaced by Grave Digger 12, well known as the "long wheelbase Digger", which was also the first Grave Digger with purple in the paint job. In 1993, Dennis Anderson and Grave Digger #7 were heavily featured on the TV series
Monster Wars. Anderson led the beginning of the season until breakages and disqualifications; he finished 5th. That year, Anderson won the 2nd USHRA wreck of the year title after he won and rolled over in Lebanon Valley Speedway, racing UFO. There was footage inside the cab of Anderson uttering his famous catch-saying “Yea we turned er over, she’s over, that’s what the people want, that’s what they got, I got a torn up truck!” In late 1998, Anderson sold the Grave Digger team to Pace Motorsports (now
Feld Entertainment) who owned the USHRA and Monster Jam tour at the time. Anderson continued to drive, being the most visible member of the team, and remained in charge of drivers and of training team members. In 2014, Anderson became the second driver to attempt the LeDuc Leap, but he damaged the front axle of the truck and attempting to save it, thus ending his run early with a score of 8.5 in the World Finals at
Sam Boyd Stadium in Las Vegas, Nevada. Anderson competed in his final event on January 14, 2017 at
Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida. On September 18, 2017, Dennis announced his full retirement from Monster Jam, stating however that he would still be behind the scenes and in the pits. The truck has continued to run in Monster Jam since Dennis Anderson's retirement with the team as of 2026 consisting of three of Anderson's children and three other drivers. == Accomplishments ==