How do you portray someone who is an icon to many but just a human being like the rest of us? That was the crux of Prime Video’s four-part docuseries on Dale Earnhardt’s life and career.
Telling Dale’s story chronologically, Earnhardt weaves in pivotal moments from “The Intimidator’s” on-track career, his business ventures, and being a dad, told by the people who knew him best. From Brian Grazer and Ron Howard, among other executive producers, the first two episodes are available May 22, while the final two episodes will be available May 29.
Amazon’s crew came into the project not knowing much about Dale or NASCAR. Their initial lack of NASCAR knowledge helped them explain who Dale was to a new audience.
“I think ultimately, we see Dale as a lot of NASCAR fans do as someone who changed their entire sport and should be seen, alongside people like Babe Ruth and Michael Jordan,” said director Joshua Altman. “We even talk about Elvis, that these are American icons. People that that are known, not just in name, but beyond that. That was our mission, to make sure that other people outside the NASCAR world understood Dale was that as well.”
Dale, the father, might be Earnhardt’s most important aspect. Someone with the most basic knowledge about Dale knows he’s a seven-time NASCAR Cup Series champion and that it took him 20 attempts to win the Daytona 500. But looking into Dale’s family life reveals a complex man trying to be a dad, as that comes at the expense of being at the top of his profession.
“I don’t think you could do one without the other,” Altman said. “I know that was always our intention to sort of, let’s tell a family story. Much in the way that The Godfather isn’t about a mobster. It’s really about a family who just happens to be in the mob.
“So for us, that was sort of the approach to this. In doing so, we have to unearth who Dale was as a driver, as an athlete, as a face of the sport, his obsession with it, and his passion for it. The fact that he was able to not just change and grow the sport, but also the business side of it. All of that lends itself to this intersection of family for us. We very much saw Dale’s sort of trajectory, his arc is this person who is hellbent on achieving success in a way that takes him away from his family. Whereas Dale Jr. is he’s searching for success in order to bring himself closer to his father.”
The heart of the docuseries is Kelley Earnhardt-Miller and her relationship with Dale Earnhardt Jr. Even when they were kids, Kelley took on more of a parental role to her younger brother when he really needed that. When Dale Jr. was sent to military school, Kelley chose to go to have someone he knew there. When Dale was killed in Daytona, and it seemed like the entire world was put on Dale Jr’s shoulders, Kelley took a pay cut to work for Dale Jr. to give him some support in his career, similar to how Dale’s wife Teresa had a significant role in Dale’s business ventures.
Speaking of Teresa, she is one notable absence in Earnhardt. Despite not being a popular figure among NASCAR fans, Teresa plays a massive role in Dale’s life story and in maintaining his legacy. Altman revealed that filmmakers reached out to Teresa “multiple times” but received no response. Instead, snippets from archival interviews give Teresa’s perspective from that time.
Regarding on-track action, Earnhardt hits almost all the significant points in Dale’s career. One aspect of Dale’s NASCAR career you won’t see is the 1979 Daytona 500. In one of the most historic races in NASCAR history, Dale led 10 laps and finished eighth in the first live flag-to-flag 500-mile broadcast. It was Dale’s breakout race, taking place in front of a national TV audience, but that was a mere footnote in Earnhardt. Altman explained that Daytona 1979 was a time issue to showcase Dale’s bigger achievements.
“I think when you craft something like this, you sort of have all these things in your head initially when you set out to make it. Especially looking at the footage of that, this is an important race. We put it in there. And I think ultimately, as we start streamlining and cutting the thing down and try to get them to an hour each, we had to kill some darlings, as they say. So that sort of became something where we were like, ‘Okay, this isn’t quite the centerpiece that we thought it was.’ Despite it being very significant to his career and to the sport.”
On the plus side, Earnhardt contains rare footage from Dale’s first career win at Bristol. Filmmakers had access to NASCAR’s vast library, and Dale’s Bristol win was a hidden gem that even the most prominent NASCAR historian may have never seen before.
My favorite episode of the four is Episode 2. Much of the episode revolves around Dale’s friendship with Neil Bonnett, and it examines that friendship in a way that no one else has before. In a world where Dale’s aggressive racing style had few friends at the track, he had a friendship with Neil, who had the two hunt and fish. When Bonnett died in a practice crash before the 1994 Daytona 500, in the same spot where Dale would die seven years later, Dale’s reaction to that crash is a pivotal part of the episode.
Someone not willing to show much emotion, it was clear that Bonnett’s crash affected Dale, but he wasn’t going to share that with anybody. One clip that shows Dale struggling to get through a pre-written statement about Bonnett shows Dale’s inability to be vulnerable. It wasn’t so much that Dale was emotional, but it was like he knew if he read it, he would be emotional. So Dale was hesitant to read that and unintentionally revealed that vulnerability while in public.
We know how Dale’s life ended on the last lap of the 2001 Daytona 500, but that’s not where his story ends. Dale’s legacy is still felt today by everyone who knows and remembers him. The final episode explores that tragic day, how everyone dealt with what happened, and the family journey and aftermath of Dale Earnhardt Inc.
Earnhardt is recommended for diehard fans and those unaware of Dale’s story. Some diehard fans may spot the occasional anachronism, but that shouldn’t be a dealbreaker. Dale’s children’s cooperation with the project ensures that Dale’s story is told accurately and provides crucial context as to the human behind the icon. Dale is viewed as a hero, but he’s a human, and no other documentary about Dale Earnhardt balanced that as well as Earnhardt.