The Earnhardt name is etched in gold in NASCAR memories. The sport has seen many iconic drivers since 1948. Richard Petty was the first superman racer among them, clinching 200 wins. But just after his last victory, he found a match in the sport – Dale Earnhardt. The Intimidator matched Petty’s 7 championships and became a legend for stock car racing fans. But while people are familiar with his story, they barely know his father. As it turns out, neither did Dale Jr. until recently.

The Earnhardt family tree has been long, and it is still expanding. But its roots are rarely looked at – Ralph Earnhardt, the family patriarch, first established this legacy with his motorsports career. Presently, Amazon Prime has revealed jaw-dropping resources about him that left even Dale Earnhardt Jr star-struck.

Well, discovering tidbits from one’s bygone family can be satisfying. Ralph Earnhardt was one of the icons who featured in NASCAR’s early years. He won his first sportsman title in 1956 after making it to Victory Lane 32 times that year. He passed away right where he kicked off his career – in the garage. Earnhardt passed away in 1973, aged 45 years old, while working on his race car. Dale Earnhardt Jr was born the next year, in 1974, so he could never meet with his grandfather. Yet that distance in time is what Amazon Prime hoped to resolve in its new documentary, ‘Earnhardt.’ From Oscar-winning producers Brian Grazer and Ron Howard, this features rare archival footage, thrilling races, and emotionally revealing interviews.

One of those interviews shocked Dale Earnhardt Jr and reminded him of his family roots. In a recent episode of ‘Bless Your Hardt’, the veteran told his wife Amy about how he was skeptical initially. Ryan McGee’s ‘Dale’ documentary had already been his standard, as he said: “The people that came to talk to us about the project on Amazon, I told them, the Dale doc’s the standard. If you can’t beat that, I don’t want to do this. They were confident that they could create something comparable, if not better.” So Amazon produced something spectacular: “There was this video of Ralph Earnhardt, he’s being interviewed at Charlotte Motor Speedway in 1959. It’s the only footage of Ralph talking…he died before I was born…This is the only time I could hear the sound of his voice, he might cock his head when he talks, mannerisms, yeah. They found more videos that I didn’t even know existed, that dad never saw.”

The thing is, when making the documentary, Joshua Altman and his team were going through archival footage to make the documentary seem more authentic. But the sheet scale of it all was impressive. Altman revealed in conversation with NBC, “We went to NASCAR, and they had 15 petabytes of material that they were like, ‘I don’t know. You’ve got to point us in the direction of what you want.’ We didn’t just want the typical clips. As the kind of filmmakers that we are, we want the handles on everything. We want to see the moment the camera turns on, the microphone being adjusted. All the little bits and pieces around it.” That’s 15,000,000 gigabytes of data!

And Altman knows the work they’ve put in is impressive, when he said, “Dale Jr. has said to us that there have been clips of his father, specifically his grandfather, that he was like, ‘I’ve never seen that of Ralph before. That of itself is a win because Dale Jr. is such a historian and a fan himself.” 

What is more, Amazon Prime left no stone unturned in its research about Dale Earnhardt himself. Since he was more in contact with his father, Dale Earnhardt Jr, it would be hard to impress him in terms of ‘The Intimidator’s’ resources. Yet Amazon succeeded there as well, as Dale Jr continued: “On my phone right here, I bet you I got 25,000 photos of Dale Earnhardt…all through the ’70s, all the Late Model Sportsman photos of his cars that he would take and carry all over the country…I rarely see a photo that I don’t have…So they found some new photos from the ’70s before he was a big deal. This stuff’s so cool.”

Clearly, the new Amazon documentary sets a new standard in covering the Earnhardt family line. It does more than that – in portraying Dale Sr. in a light that few people consider.

Highlighting the raw, earthy aspects

The vast fanbase that worships Dale Earnhardt Sr regards him like a god of motorsports. For most of the younger generation, he is a stuff of legends as he passed away in 2001. However, Amazon Prime’s new documentary delves into the deeper, more human side of the iconic racer. It takes a wider view, including touching on less positive sides of the seven-time Cup Series champion.

It includes a lot of candid interviews that discuss private conversations Earnhardt had with friends and other drivers. For instance, Earnhardt’s longtime friend Hank Parker Sr. recounted a conversation. Over there, Dale Sr, ever known as a personality fiercely focused on his career, confessed that he could never tell his children that he loved them. Watching that was eye-opening and absolutely riveting for Dale Jr and his sister, Kelley Earnhardt Miller.

Dale Earnhardt Jr spilled his emotions while talking about that scene: “For me and Kelley to hear that was incredible. There’s a couple little nuggets of that in there with (Parker) and other people who contributed to the project that … I would’ve never believed that was what Dad said or how that went down.” Kelley Earnhardt Miller also praised the new documentary: “There’s been a few different documentaries and pieces done but I don’t think anything this comprehensive. A kind of human side of our dad, not the racer, not always the racer that people know. The father and the person and the friend and all that he was to people.”

Evidently, Amazon Prime’s work of art has gone above and beyond. With Dale Jr and his sister’s approval, it has possibly created a new milestone in the Earnhardt legacy.