3: The Dale Earnhardt Story
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| 3: The Dale Earnhardt Story | |
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 3: The Dale Earnhardt Story movie poster |
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| Directed by | Russell Mulcahy |
| Produced by | Orly Adelson Lynn Raynor |
| Written by | Robert Eisele |
| Starring | Barry Pepper |
| Music by | Gary Rossington |
| Distributed by | ESPN |
| Release date(s) | December 11, 2004 |
| Running time | 90 minutes |
| Language | English |
| IMDb profile | |
3: The Dale Earnhardt Story or sometimes referred to as The Dale Earnhardt Movie is a 2004 television movie produced by ESPN documenting the life of NASCAR driver Dale Earnhardt, his poor upbringing in Kannapolis, North Carolina, his rise to dominance in NASCAR, his relationship with his son, Dale Earnhardt, Jr., and his death in the 2001 Daytona 500. It was first broadcast on December 11, 2004, and was subsequently released on DVD. Barry Pepper stars as Dale Earnhardt.
Many race scenes were shot at Rockingham Speedway, after the track had lost its races and was used mostly as a test track and driving school.
Chad McCumbee, who portrayed Junior, later became a NASCAR driver in the Truck Series. He also raced alongside Dale Jr. himself at the Pocono 500, driving Kyle Petty's 45 car, as Kyle Petty was in the TNT broadcast booth.
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[edit] Copyright infringement controversy
The script of this film was not approved by Teresa Earnhardt and the Earnhardt family. The film, although capturing the essence of Dale Earnhardt, is inaccurate in many of the events seen in the film. Richard Childress, the former car owner and team owner of Dale Earnhardt sued ESPN for copyright infringement with the film's use of the "3" logo.
[edit] Historical inaccuracies
The relationship between Darrell Waltrip and Dale in the film focuses primarily on their fierce rivalry, with little attention given to the friendship that would develop between the two. Waltrip noted this on his website during the runup to the movie. Waltrip eventually drove for Earnhardt's race team in 1998. Also, it is Waltrip's tear-filled voice that can be heard saying "I just hope Dale's okay." during the movie's depiction of Earnhardt's fatal crash at Daytona due to the use Fox Network's original footage and commentary, which is now owned by NASCAR Images (starting in 2001, NASCAR Images owns all NASCAR race footage; they also own the footage of the former Sunbelt Video).
Several of the cars shown in the movie were historically inaccurate. In the moments before the 2001 Daytona 500, the cars of Bobby Labonte, Rusty Wallace, Bill Elliott, Jeff Gordon, and Rick Mast were shown as cars from a different year, with Gordon's easily visible, as the 2001 season was the year the "Rainbow Warrior" livery was replaced with the "Fire and Flames" livery. Also notable was a wrong-year scene featuring Morgan-McClure Motorsports, where a late 1990s Kodak Max film livery was used instead of the Kodak Gold film livery. (The design was based on a box of Kodak film.)
In two different scenes in the movie, the infield of various tracks were shown with flags of drivers who were not driving at that time were shown, such as Tony Stewart's flag at the Darlington race.
Before Dale Earnhardt Jr. is shown going to military school, Teresa expresses concern in the film. At the time, however, Earnhardt, Jr. was in the custody of his biological mother, now Brenda Jackson (the daughter of car builder Robert Gee), Dale Earnhardt's second wife. Jackson and her brothers, Robert Gee, Jr. and Jimmy Gee, are all currently employees of the younger Earnhardt's Nationwide Series team, JR Motorsports.
The February 23, 1986 incident at Richmond International Raceway was inaccurately depicted, where Earnhardt spun out Darrell Waltrip with three laps to go. In the film, Earnhardt's now-famous line "I didn't mean to wreck him, I just wanted to rattle his cage a little." was part of the post-race interview. That line, however, was not said at that time. Instead it was said at Bristol on August 28, 1999 after Earnhardt spun out Terry Labonte on the final lap to win the race.
In Earnhardt's first Daytona 500 start, the movie shows him driving a Chevrolet Monte Carlo. However, he actually drove a Buick.
The death of Dale's father, Ralph Earnhardt happened in the kitchen and he was found by his wife Martha. In the film he died in the garage and was found by Dale.
The movie made no mention of his two year stint with car owner Bud Moore from 1982 to 1983. In fact, for many years, Nationwide Series cars by Hendrick Motorsports used #15 because Earnhardt drove a Hendrick-Gee car to a Busch Series win at Charlotte in 1983.
Dale actually first met Teresa when she was about 16, and he knew she was Hal Houston's daughter. Their meeting is inaccurately portrayed in the movie.
In the scenes of the 2001 Daytona 500, Dale is seen in the movie wearing a helmet with Corvette Racing decals, rather than his GM Goodwrench decaled helmet.
In the 2001 Daytona 500 scene, Dale is seen wearing tinted racing goggles. Dale actually wore his clear racing goggles in his final race.
None of Earnhardt's crew chiefs were accurately mentioned in the movie. Earnhardt won his first championship with Doug Richert (now crew chief of DEI's #01), then won his next four with Kirk Shelmerdine, and his final two with Andy Petree (now at ESPN) at the top of the pit box. He won his only Daytona 500 with Larry McReynolds (currently with Fox Sports). None were portrayed in the movie accurately.
Neil Bonnett did give a gun to Dale Earnhardt as a gift and their friendship is accurate in the movie.
[edit] Anachronisms
During one of the scenes taking place in the 1970s, Earnhardt is shown placing a money clip on the table holding what is clearly a series 1998 $20 bill.
Realtree was shown as a sponsor during a dirt track race in the 1950s early in the film, but it was not founded until the 1980s.
Sunoco Gasoline is shown on the fuel tankers in the movie, but Union 76 fuel was used in the era. (Sunoco did not sign with NASCAR until the start of the 2004 season. However, it should be noted many short tracks use CAM2 (now Sunoco) Racing Gasoline, even in the 1970s.)
After the scene where Dale won the 1998 Daytona 500, it shows him crashing in the Die Hard 500. However, his Die Hard crash happened 2 years earlier, on July 28, 1996.
[edit] External links
