John Schnatter, the founder of the Papa John's pizza chain, spend years searching for the beloved Camaro he sold to start his business. Finally, he has been reunited with the car and in celebration, the chain is giving out free pizzas on Wednesday to all Camaro drivers.

Schnatter said:

"The Camaro represents what I gave up to start Papa John's. Words cannot capture the emotions I am feeling....I never gave up hope that someday I would get that car back."

Back in 1983, his father, an Indiana bar owner, was near bankruptcy. To help him out, Schnatter sold the only thing he had that was worth anything - a black and gold striped 1971 Chevy Camaro for $2,800. As he tells the story, he had to turn his back as the buyer drove the beloved car away. With the proceeds from the sale of the car, he bought some equipment and started selling pizzas out of a broom closet of his dad's bar. Slowly, they dug themselves out of bankruptcy.

Now the pizza chain is the world's third largest and is worth $750 million. But even as business began to take off and he became filthy rich, Schnatter never gave up hope that one day he would be reunited with his car.

He did not have a record of who he sold it to, and spent years searching for it. He even hired a private investigator to aid in the search. Then in May he turned the search for the car into a marketing campaign tied to Papa John's 25th anniversary. he drove a replica of the car across the country and handed out free pizza.

Initially he offered a $25,000 reward, but in June he upped it to $250,000. That was apparently enough to find the car. Last week the Kentucky family came forward and said that they sold it to another man five years ago.

The buyer, Jeff Robinson of Flatwoods, Ky. eagerly agreed to sell it back for $250,000.

Robinson said:

"I'll try to spend it wisely, but, you know, I may not spend all of it wisely. I'm still kinda numb about it."

The original owners will also get a reward of $25,000 for helping to track it down.

Amazingly, the muscle car was kept in pristine condition. Robinson only beefedup the motor for drag racing, and now it goes to 141mph.

Schnatter was delighted at the reunion with his car:

"It looks just like it did when I sold it. The odds of that happening is one in a million."