Amazon Is Making a Dale Earnhardt Documentary
Dale Earnhardt has a strong argument as both the best and most important NASCAR driver ever. That much is obvious to racing fans, but it is not a story told outside of motorsport circles often. The last attempt was the ESPN-produced biopic 3: The Dale Earnhardt Story, a dramatized retelling of Earnhardt's life that aired six years before the seminal racing documentary Senna. On Tuesday, Amazon announced a new plan to take a shot at telling Earnhardt's story. This time, it will happen in the form of a four-part documentary.
The untitled Earnhardt documentary is a co-production of Imagine Documentaries and NASCAR Productions, plus a group called Everyone Else. Imagine is a particularly notable name; that is the Ron Howard and Brian Grazer studio responsible for the 1976 F1 dramatization Rush. Both Howard and Grazer are listed as executive producers on the project. The production is also happening "in association with" Dirty Mo Media, Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s media and podcast company.
Amazon says that the four-part documentary, which follows a trend popularized by ESPN's Michael Jordan-focused The Last Dance in its multi-part length, is "a profound, revealing, and definitive account of a historic American family." It brings "unparalleled access and never before seen archival material," presumably made available by both NASCAR and the Earnhardt family.
The Earnhardt documentary, along with a small handful of other sports documentaries set to be aired on Amazon's streaming platform, does not yet have a set release date. The streamer will begin broadcasting NASCAR races in May of 2025 and will have Earnhardt Jr. in the booth for those events, so a premiere around the beginning of its NASCAR coverage window this time next year would make sense if the project is complete in time.
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