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Now’s a great time to be a racing fan if you also subscribe to every streaming service known to man. The recipe (or should I say formula?) for success first implemented by Drive to Survive has not only Netflix but also everyone else making motorsport documentaries left and right. That might dilute the viewing material itself, but there’s good reason to believe Amazon Prime Video’s new four-part series on Dale Earnhardt Sr. will be well worth the watch.
First, Dale Earnhardt Jr. is directly involved with the show. His company Dirty Mo Media is mentioned in Amazon’s release along with Ron Howard, who directed Rush, an all-time racing movie chronicling the F1 rivalry between James Hunt and Niki Lauda. This is a great sign considering there have been plenty of unsolicited documentaries and biopics made over the years without the approval of public figures or their families. Earnhardt Jr. will join Prime’s NASCAR Cup Series broadcast team in 2025, so the tie-in is already there, too.
Secondly, Prime Video is promising “unparalleled access and never before seen archival material.” That’s great considering there have already been several other docs released on cable. The list includes a relatively recent ESPN E60 film titled “INTIMIDATOR: The Lasting Legacy of Dale Earnhardt” that dropped in 2021.
And third, it appears to go deeper than racing. Some will love that while others, maybe not so much, but Earnhardt Sr.’s driving career has been exhaustively recorded and reported at this point. The seven-time Cup Series champion was the sport’s biggest driver for an entire generation, and coverage continued on through Junior’s career as well. Prime Video’s series will seemingly look more at Dale Earnhardt Sr. as the patriarch of a racing family as well as a businessman who started his own team, Dale Earnhardt, Inc., itself being the focus of much discussion over the years.
“From one generation to the next, racing would bring the Earnhardt family together, but it wasn’t always an easy road,” the streaming service’s release continues.
Promotional material for the show includes Earnhardt branding, though it apparently doesn’t have an official title yet. Either way, we can expect it to launch on Prime Video in 2025. I’m crossing my fingers that this, as well as Netflix’s Senna, will stand on its own for years to come without the need for another one soon after to fill in the gaps. All signs point to it being a success, so here’s hoping.
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