There are NASCAR historians out there who keep the legacy of the sport alive. Dale Earnhardt Jr. is a NASCAR historian who keeps NASCAR history alive for a mainstream audience.
Earnhardt Jr.’s love of the history of NASCAR is known with his support of the NASCAR Hall of Fame, when he interviews legends on The Dale Jr. Download, uncovering the history of an abandoned track on Lost Speedways, or bringing in classic stock cars and North Wilkesboro on iRacing. His latest contribution is arguably his most important to date.
Becoming Earnhardt is an eight-part podcast series on The Dale Jr. Download podcast feed chronicling Dale Earnhardt Sr.’s rookie year and the 1979 NASCAR season, one of the most pivotal years in NASCAR history. What makes this series unique is the in-depth storytelling. Earnhardt’s sister Kaye (Dale Jr.’s aunt) compiled a scrapbook with news clippings about her brother in his rookie season. There’s a lot of new information, and everyone from casual NASCAR fans to the most diehard will learn something new.
Episode 1 sets up the 1979 season, explaining how Earnhardt got to NASCAR and began racing for Rod Osterlund. Episode 2 dealt with the race from 1979 that most fans know about, the Daytona 500.
The 1979 Daytona 500 was the first live flag-to-flag broadcast for a 500-mile race, and it ended with a shocking fight after leaders Donnie Allison and Cale Yarbrough crashed, with Richard Petty scoring the win from third place.
The planets aligned for NASCAR. With an East Coast blizzard keeping the majority of the country in their homes, seeing a dramatic race that ended in a fight, the race gave NASCAR mainstream publicity they had never experienced before, something the France family would parlay into a multi-billion dollar worldwide corporation.
That race also has a unique connection with my family as my dad was not only at the 1979 Daytona 500, he met Dale Earnhardt in the infield at Daytona during Speedweeks. A friend of my dad’s was one of Earnhardt’s earliest fans and somehow knew Dale. Dale stopped by in the infield, where my dad and his friends camped out for a chat. Just like what listeners will experience in Becoming Earnhardt, my dad got a glimpse of the man before he became “The Intimidator.”
When talking about the races, the podcast seamlessly goes from Earnhardt Jr.’s narration to the actual MRN radio broadcast. It gives a rather contemporary feel to something that occurred nearly 45 years ago.
The great part about using the MRN broadcast is that the podcast gives us a different version of the 1979 Daytona 500. Anyone who watches clips of that race, more often than not, listened to the CBS TV broadcast of Ken Squier and David Hobbs. Very few listened to the radio broadcast of Barney Hall, Jack Arute, Mike Joy, Gary Gerould, and Eli Gold. It’s this important inclusion that makes this podcast come alive.
If you are a NASCAR fan, whether you’ve been following the sport all your life or just started last week, Becoming Earnhardt requires listening. It’s more than just talking about what Dale Earnhardt did in 1979. It’s a look back at NASCAR as a whole. Earnhardt Jr. teased the possibility of a second season that covers the 1980 season, and based on the quality of the first two episodes, I hope the crew at Dirty Mo Media make it happen.
Two of the eight episodes are already released on The Dale Jr. Download feed, with new episodes dropping each Wednesday.
