Everything’s coming up Earnhardt, and for Dale Jr, that’s great. For NASCAR, it may be a different story.
Dale Earnhardt Jr, AKA Dale Jr, is featured heavily in what was Amazon Prime’s summer coverage of races in June. He was prominent in advertisements and as a featured commentator for those races. He’s also featured in a new IHOP commercial. And a new Amazon Prime docu-series about his Dad, recently released to acclaim.
The documentary, simply titled “Earnhardt,” is great. It’s a look behind the scenes of “The Intimidator” and seeks to answer the question, “What drives Dale Earnhardt?” But all of this comes at a cost to NASCAR.
The sport is hemorrhaging fans and viewership, and the biggest name in the sport is still an Earnhardt. I won’t get into the weeds entirely, because over on OutKick Zach Dean’s article, “Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s New Commercial Is a Major Red Flag for NASCAR,” pretty much goes into the nuts and bolts, but the gist?
As NASCAR’s biggest star, Dale Jr hasn’t been in a car competitively since 2017. While his booth presence and the documentary about his father are brilliant marketing for both the film and for Amazon (as it is streaming exclusively on Prime), they and Dale Jr are the biggest winners here.
Losing out is NASCAR, and the docu-series really drives home that point.
One of the amazing things about this four-part documentary series is that it not only established the legend of Dale, but it shows his rivalries, starting with Darrel Waltrip on through to Jeff Gordon. These rivalries are a large part of what is missing from the sport right now.
“Earnhardt” is a great reminder of what once was, and a stark reminder of what isn’t to be.
The truth is that among the multi-championship NASCAR drivers, Dale crossed over in the mainstream in a way that Richard Petty only sort of did. Jimmy Johnson won as many championships as Dale and Petty, but he was a star IN the sport, not OF the sport.
Jeff Gordon did cross over, but while he was a NASCAR fixture, as a face of NASCAR, in hindsight, he feels more like a brief shooting star. Perhaps that’s because his rivalry with Dale was just as big for him as it was for the sport.
Beyond that, the modern three-time and two-time winners are similar to Jimmy Johnson, though with fewer championships. They don’t transcend outside the sport itself.
Meanwhile, Amazon Prime’s coverage has been great. Prime being the home of the documentary and some racing was worth the subscription rate in June. But Amazon is the only real winner here.
NASCAR’s coverage is split between networks. The Truck series is on one channel. The Xfinity races are on another. And the actual Cup series races get moved around a bunch of networks (not to mention that Cup qualifying is on Amazon Prime, even if the races aren’t outside of this past June).
With an aging fanbase that finds it harder to keep track and watch the Truck and Xfinity series, which are feeder series for younger drivers to the big time, it’s harder to build a fanbase and keep them satisfied.
I’m only a casual fan, and while the docu-series “Earnhardt” was amazing, it just reminds you of how BIG NASCAR once was, and how no one has really replaced Dale Earnhardt. Amazon has turned to Dale Jr, but it’s not really making the future brighter. If anything, it only made this past June feel a little more nostalgic.
Meanwhile, my three favorite quotes from the Earnhardt series are pretty important to what you’ve just read.
“I was racing on credit and borrowed time, more or less. And I was pretty much in debt. And I was looking for the big chance.” – Dale Earnhardt may have started out that way, but that’s not really the way any of the current racers start out, and that may be one of those problems that just can’t be fixed.
“When you’re gone, all you’re gonna have left is your reputation and your name, so you want to have a good one.” As the documentary and the slow decline of NASCAR since his untimely death at Daytona in 2001 prove, his reputation wasn’t just good; it was the best.
Lastly, as Dale Jr reflects on the loss of his father, he says, “I thought he was just ours. I thought he was just this NASCAR icon. And in that moment, I just remember thinkin’, I feel so lucky that I got to be his son.”
Well, he was an icon, beyond NASCAR, and not one driver has filled the void since. NASCAR needs to figure out how to fill that void before it runs out of fuel.