3: The Dale Earnhardt Story
: The Dale Earnhardt Story or sometimes referred to as The Dale Earnhardt Movie is a 2004 television movie produced by ESPN documenting the life of NASCAR driver Dale Earnhardt, his poor upbringing in Kannapolis, North Carolina, his rise to dominance in NASCAR, his relationship with his son, Dale Earnhardt, Jr., and his death in the 2001 Daytona 500. It was first broadcast on December 11, 2004, and was subsequently released on DVD. Barry Pepper stars as Dale Earnhardt.
The script of this film was not approved by Teresa Earnhardt and the Earnhardt family. The film, although capturing the essence of Dale Earnhardt, is inaccurate in many of the events seen in the film. Richard Childress, the former car owner and team owner of Dale Earnhardt sued ESPN for copyright infringement with the film's use of the "3" logo.
[edit] Notes
The relationship
between Darrell Waltrip and Dale in the film focuses primarily on their fierce
rivalry, with little attention given to the friendship that would develop between
the two. Waltrip noted this on his website during the runup to the movie. Waltrip
eventually drove for Earnhardt's race team in 1998. Also, it is Waltrip's tear-filled
voice that can be heard saying "I just hope Dale's okay." during the
movie's depiction of Earnhardt's fatal crash at Daytona due to the use Fox Network's
original footage and commentary, which is now owned by NASCAR Images (starting
in 2001, NASCAR Images owns all NASCAR race footage; they also own the footage
of the former Sunbelt Video).
Many race scenes were shot at Rockingham Speedway,
after the track had lost its races and was used mostly as a test track and driving
school.
Several of the cars shown in the movie were historically inaccurate.
In the moments before the 2001 Daytona 500, the cars of Bobby Labonte, Rusty Wallace,
Bill Elliott, Jeff Gordon, and Rick Mast were shown as cars from a different year,
with Gordon's easily visible, as the 2001 season was the year the "Rainbow
Warrior" livery was replaced with the "Fire and Flames" livery.
Also notable was a wrong-year scene featuring Morgan-McClure Motorsports, where
a late 1990s Kodak Max film livery was used instead of the Kodak Gold film livery.
(The design was based on a box of Kodak film.)
In two different scenes in
the movie, the infield of various tracks were shown with flags of drivers who
were not driving at that time were shown, such as Tony Stewart's flag at the Darlington
race.
Before Dale Earnhardt Jr. is shown going to military school, Teresa
expresses concern in the film. At the time, however, Earnhardt, Jr. was in the
custody of his biological mother, now Brenda Jackson (the daughter of car builder
Robert Gee), Dale Earnhardt's second wife. Jackson and her brothers, Robert Gee,
Jr. and Jimmy Gee, are all currently employees of the younger Earnhardt's Nationwide
Series team, JR Motorsports.
Neil Bonnett did give a gun to Dale Earnhardt
as a gift and their friendship is accurate in the movie.
Sunoco Gasoline is
shown on the fuel tankers in the movie, but Union 76 fuel was used in the era.
(Sunoco did not sign with NASCAR until the start of the 2004 season. However,
it should be noted many short tracks use CAM2 (now Sunoco) Racing Gasoline, even
in the 1970s.)
The February 23, 1986 incident at Richmond International Raceway
was inaccurately depicted, where Earnhardt spun out Darrell Waltrip with three
laps to go. In the film, Earnhardt's now-famous line "I didn't mean to wreck
him, I just wanted to rattle his cage a little." was part of the post-race
interview. That line, however, was not said at that time. Instead it was said
at Bristol on August 28, 1999 after Earnhardt spun out Terry Labonte on the final
lap to win the race.
During one of the scenes taking place in the 1970s, Earnhardt
is shown placing a money clip on the table holding what is clearly a series 1998
$20 bill.
In Earnhardt's first Daytona 500 start, the movie shows him driving
a Chevrolet Monte Carlo. However, he actually drove a Buick.
Realtree was
shown as a sponsor during a dirt track race in the 1950's early in the film, but
it was not founded until the 1980's.
The death of Dale's father Ralph Earnhardt
happened in the kitchen and he was found by his wife Martha. In the film he died
in the garage and was found by Dale.
The movie made no mention of his two
year stint with car owner Bud Moore from 1982 to 1983. In fact, for many years,
Nationwide Series cars by Hendrick Motorsports used #15 because Earnhardt drove
a Hendrick-Gee car to a Busch Series win at Charlotte in 1983.
Dale actually
first met Teresa when she was about 16, and he knew she was Hal Houston's daughter.
Their meeting is inaccurately portrayed in the movie.
In the scenes of the
2001 Daytona 500, Dale is seen in the movie wearing a helmet with Corvette Racing
decals, rather than his GM Goodwrench decaled helmet.
In the 2001 Daytona
500 scene, Dale is seen wearing tinted racing goggles. Dale actually wore his
clear racing goggles in his final race.
Teresa Earnhardt was portrayed by
two actresses, the first when Dale Jr. was a child and the other actress was seen
in the later part of the film.
None of Earnhardt's crew chiefs were accurately
mentioned in the movie. Earnhardt won his first championship with Doug Richert
(now crew chief of DEI's #01), then won his next four with Kirk Shelmerdine, and
his final two with Andy Petree (now at ESPN) at the top of the pit box. He won
his only Daytona 500 with Larry McReynolds (currently with Fox Sports). None were
portrayed in the movie accurately.
Chad McCumbee, who portrayed Junior, later
became a NASCAR driver in the Truck Series. He also raced along side Dale Jr.
himself at the Pocono 500, driving Kyle Petty's 45 car, as Kyle Petty was in the
TNT broadcast booth.
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