Driven: Dale Earnhardt Jr. follows the journey of Dale Jr., the son of the legendary racing champion Dale Earnhardt Sr., from matchbox cars to NASCAR speedways. After years of trying to prove himself to his hard-to-please father, he finally earns the right to drive for him as a full-time Winston Cup driver. But when he loses his father in a tragic racing accident at the beginning of his second Winston Cup season, he has to use every lesson he’s learned about racing to carry on the Earnhardt family’s legacy and honor his father’s memory.
Driven: Dale Earnhardt Jr. highlights include:- Dale Jr. is born into a family of legendary racers and grows up with a love for cars and racing.
- He struggles with his father’s fame and his own place among his peers at school.
- When he finally begins racing, he has an uphill battle living up to his father’s high expectations as well as the expectations of the racing community who expect him to be as good as his father.
- In fact, Dale Jr. doesn’t meet expectations in his early racing years.
- He struggles to show his father how dedicated and focused he is on racing.
- When he finally gets a chance to prove himself driving for his father, he wrecks his car in his first major outing.
- Dale Jr. blazes his way into NASCAR history books by winning back-to-back championships in NASCAR’s minor-league Busch Series.
- He becomes a legend in his own right when he gets the biggest sponsorship in NASCAR history from Budweiser.
- He begins racing in the big leagues, the Winston Cup, experiencing a strong friendship with his father for the first time in his life.
- Dale Jr. loses his father in a tragic accident in the Daytona 500 at the start of his second season in the Winston Cup.
- He must face this loss every week as he struggles on the racetrack.
- Dale Jr. finally proves himself and lives up his father’s memory by winning a race at the same racetrack that took his father’s life.
Dale Jr.’s life is told through exclusive interviews with the key members of his life, including his mother; his relatives; friends; NASCAR racecar drivers Tony Stewart, Kyle Petty, Steve Park, and Matt Kenseth, former racecar driver Darrell Waltrip and NASCAR president Mike Helton.
Interview highlights include:
BRENDA G. JACKSON, Dale Jr.’s mother: Dale Jr. really struggled to get his dad’s approval and maybe he felt like his dad’s love.
ROBERT POWELL, racecar driver: Dale Jr. was coming in, and we thought that would be pretty exciting, well, you know, “This guy is gonna have all this money, and all these equipment with him, and just kick his butt.”
DON HAWK, family friend & business associate: He didn’t set the world on fire. Everybody wondered why, why didn’t you do good? Your Daddy did good, and you got the last name Earnhardt.
CHARLIE POWELL, racetrack owner: His dad raised cane with him a lot, you know, about, about the car, why he’s not winning, why he’s not doing better. He, he put a lot of pressure on him.
GARY HARGETT, former racecar driver: Well, you know, it hurt Junior a lot, like, the man don’t think I can do nothing right.
DON HAWK, family friend: The public perception was you need to be very, very good because you’re an Earnhardt. But privately, Dale Jr. wanted to be very, very good because he was Dale Sr.’s Son.
STEVE CRISP, former manager: He watched every move his dad made, and stored it for when the time would come when he'd need to do it.
KELLEY EARNHARDT, Dale Jr.’s sister: Dale Jr. was filled with the satisfaction that he finally did something that Dad felt was right and good.
TONY STEWART, racecar driver: It didn't take long for all the Winston Cup drivers to realize that-- that Dale Jr. was gonna be a major force in Winston Cup racing.
TONY EURY JR., Dale Jr.’s cousin: When you got a hero that’s that big you, its kind of hard to let him go.
KELLEY EARNHARDT, Dale Jr.’s sister: The only person in the world that he looked to for that support and guidance and advice, that he trusted 100 percent, was gone.
KYLE PETTY, racecar driver: His competitive drive is like his father’s. He’s never ever gonna just stop in the middle of the backstretch and just say, “Okay, it’s over with, I’m outta here.”
Footage & photo highlights include: - Photos of Dale Jr. at military school
- Footage of Dale Jr. racing in NASCAR’s late-model series
- Footage of a 15-year-old Dale Jr. being interviewed about his dream to become a racecar driver.
Backstory
Dale Earnhardt Jr. was born on October 10, 1974 in Kannapolis, North Carolina to a family of racers. Both his grandfathers had been famous in NASCAR for driving and building cars. During Dale Jr.’s childhood and teenage years, his father, Dale Earnhardt Sr., would become one of NASCAR’s champions, eventually winning seven championships and earning the nick-name the “Intimidator” for driving his black No. 3 car with a ferocity and roughness that NASCAR fans either loved or detested.
For the most part, Dale Jr. had a turbulent early childhood. Dale Sr.’s attention was focused on racing in the big leagues more than on his kids and his absence took its toll on the family. When Dale Jr. was three years old, his parents divorced and he lived first with his mom and then, after their house burned down, with his father. But Dale Sr. continued to focus on racing, rarely seeing his kids. As a teenager, Dale Jr. found an outlet in racing – from go-carts to hanging out at the track. Eventually he got interested enough to buy a junk car and start racing. He spent the next several years on local tracks in the lower NASCAR racing series trying to overcome his father’s skepticism that his son didn’t the dedication to become a real racecar driver.
Dale Jr. was hooked on the speed and the competition of driving and was determined to take his racing to a more professional level. He worked hard to convince his father he had what it took to drive his father’s car full-time in the Busch Series, the racing league that is just a notch below the Winston Cup circuit where Dale Sr. competed. Finally his father decided his son was focused enough, and Dale Jr. debuted in the Busch Series. He proved himself by winning back-to-back series championships, and getting an endorsement from Budweiser that was the highest in NASCAR history. It was time for Dale Jr. to prove himself to his father on a more advanced level – the Winston Cup Series. The Intimidator’s own turf.
In 2000, Dale Jr. entered the Winston Cup circuit as a rookie. He was hoping to prove himself to his fans, his fellow drivers, himself, and most importantly his father. In April at the Texas Motor Speedway, he grabbed the checkered flag to win his first Winston Cup victory. He was 26 years old and his victory had finally won him the respect from his father he had always dreamed of. They were at the beginning of a new era and were more than just father and son. They had become on-track competitors, off-track business partners, and, finally, friends.
But when his father was killed during in a tragic accident during the Daytona 500 in 2001, Dale Jr. was left stranded by his grief and a sense of fear that everything that had been pushing him to become a NASCAR driver had just been snuffed out. Now Dale Jr. had to find his own place in racing and carry on his family’s legend. As the months dragged on, Dale Jr. wrestled with his driving career; he needed to find out who he was racing for and at the same time come to peace with his father’s death. To top it off everyone was anticipating the upcoming Pepsi 400, when the Winston Cup would return to Daytona in July of 2001. Dale dreaded the thought of competing on the same track that had taken his father’s life but he raced like a man with a mission and took the checkered flag to win. He had shaken off his demons, honored his father and driven himself into success.
Driven traces an artist’s journey from the earliest glimmer of stardom to the first blush of full-blown success. It examines the blueprint for their accomplishments and that ineffable something that drove them forward despite obstacles and setbacks, all told by the people who knew them best. In Driven: Dale Earnhardt Jr. you’ll hear the candid personal thoughts of those who played pivotal roles in Dale Jr.’s early life and in the development of his career. You’ll also see some of the most extraordinary and rare footage of Dale in existence, including video footage and photos that have never been shown on television. The result is a vivid and complex portrait of one of the country's sexiest stars.
|
