I’ve said it here before, but I just want the record to show: Dale Earnhardt and Dale Earnhardt Jr. are my favorite NASCAR drivers ever.
Full stop.
I have the diecasts, shirts and Dale Sr. Coca-Cola cardboard cutout to prove it.
Two of my most cherished NASCAR memories are watching the 1998 and 2014 Daytona 500.
In 2021, I dutifully sat down with my dad — the elder Earnhardt fan who introduced me to NASCAR — and watched ESPN’s E60 documentary that marked the 20 years since Dale Sr.’s death.
Anything Earnhardt related is going to be catnip to me.
Then came Thursday morning.
Amazon Prime dropped the trailer for its first major NASCAR project under its part of the new TV deal.
My first thoughts were what any Earnhardt fan would think.
This is awesome.
The opening “welcome to my office” clip?
Nailed it.
Produced by Ron Howard?
Hell yeah, I will definitely be watching Memorial Day weekend.
Then I sat with it for a few moments.
On almost every level, Prime coming out of the gate with a production focused on Dale Earnhardt makes sense.
Even though it’s been 24 years since his death, he still stands as the most recognizable figure of NASCAR’s last 40 years not named Petty.
There’s a reason almost every other social media post from NASCAR, NBC Sports and FOX Sports feels like it’s Earnhardt-related and why you can still buy overpriced GM Goodwrench hats at merch haulers on race weekend.
Also, Dale Earnhardt Jr. is now part of the Amazon family as an analyst.
When Jay Busbee’s book Earnhardt Nation was published in 2016, Dale Jr. put out a statement that he had politely declined to participate in it, wanting to tell the family story on his own terms at some point in the future.
I have to imagine this docu-series is that project.
If you have the chance to do an Earnhardt project with Dale Jr. in the fold and Howard producing, who wouldn’t take that opportunity?
However, four years after being able to resolve my own lingering emotions about Dale Sr.’s death, I can look at it from a different point of view.
In addition to the 2021 ESPN documentary on Dale Sr., there was the stellar Earnhardt documentary Dale in 2007 that was narrated by Paul Newman.
A lot has already been documented about the man.
Dale Sr. died 24 years ago. Dale Jr. retired from full-time racing in 2017.
Why not launch with a project that’s more focused on the sport in its current state?
We have gotten that recently, as Netflix has had its own documentary projects about Bubba Wallace and the great NASCAR Full Speed series (which will have a second season at some point this year).
After being announced two years ago, we’re still waiting for Amazon’s documentary about NASCAR’s 24 Hours of Le Mans adventure to be released.
I would love for Amazon, or even HBO Max, to do an all-encompassing project that covers NASCAR history, decade-by-decade, to introduce potential new viewers to the sport.
There are also plenty of other historic drivers who can be mined for content.
Where’s a documentary about Mark Martin?
Anyway, I’m going to watch all four episodes of this new docu-series like it’s my job, because it’s freaking Dale Earnhardt.
NASCAR wouldn’t be NASCAR without the name Earnhardt.
But there’s plenty more to NASCAR than one name.
Daniel McFadin is a 10-year veteran of the NASCAR media corp. He wrote for NBC Sports from 2015 to October 2020. He currently works full time for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette and is lead reporter and an editor for Frontstretch. He is also host of the NASCAR podcast "Dropping the Hammer with Daniel McFadin" presented by Democrat-Gazette.
You can email him at danielmcfadin@gmail.com.