3 (ESPN’s The Dale Earnhardt Story) Was Truly a Charm

By Valerie Wood

Like probably most avid, dedicated and die-hard Dale Earnhardt fans, I was a bit wary as to whether a made-for-TV type bio-pic chronicling the life of racing’s unparalleled Dale Earnhardt could ever hope to be more than a mediocre effort to capitalize on the life and name of racing’s legendary Man in Black. I put aside my reservations and sat back to watch the premiere of ‘3’ on Saturday night (December 11). I’m just going to come right out and say it. The movie was exceptionally well done, beautifully filmed, tastefully and well-edited, and definitely a fine credit to the life and fans’ memories of Dale Earnhardt. This was one of the best biographical AND racing-themed movies I have ever seen. The acting was superb, and the production team of Executive Producer Orly Adelson (whose prior credits include ESPN’s highly acclaimed production of The Junction Boys and the series, Playmakers, amongst others) did an outstanding job of capturing the essentials of the life of Dale Earnhardt, particularly focusing on his early years and his relationship with his father, who was also a legendary driver in his own right.

Barry Pepper’s bravura performance as Dale Earnhardt, Sr. was a moving, feeling, gutsy and sometimes vulnerable inside view of the man known simply to literally millions of race fans as The Intimidator. Pepper’s facial resemblance (with some makeup help) to Earnhardt was sometimes uncanny, particularly as the struggling young racer and in the racing scenes behind the wheel of the car. Pepper’s vocal inflections (assisted by hours of listening to tapes of Dale’s speaking) were quite reminiscent of Dale’s voice and as a viewer I did not find myself distracted, pausing to differentiate between the actor and the subject he was portraying. No higher compliment can be paid.

The supporting players, beyond being cast for a physical resemblance to their characters, were also effective, particularly well known character and Broadway actor J.K. Simmons as Ralph Earnhardt, Dale’s hard-nosed racer father, and Chad McCumbee, who had Dale Earnhardt, Jr.’s (Dale Jr’s) young persona, expression and cadence captured brilliantly. Sean Bridgers played Dale’s close friend, Neil Bonnet and the film explored the impact of their friendship and of Neil’s subsequent death at Daytona while testing, on Dale. Many supporting actors gave fine performances in small roles— David Sherrill as Humpy Wheeler was particularly sublime, and Andrea Powell, as Dale’s mom, Martha, was equally adroit. Elisabeth Mitchell did a nice job of portraying Teresa Earnhardt ( Dale’s 3 rd wife) and her scenes with Barry Pepper added a realistic touch to the film concerning the private Dale Earnhardt that many never saw.

Fans who are knowledgeable about Dale immediately recognized “Suitcase Jake” Elder ( Joe Chrest), Darrell “Jaws” Waltrip ( Greg Thompson), T. Wayne Robertson ( Mike Flippo), and Junior Johnson ( David Hager). Ron Prather portrayed Richard Childress quite nicely, and Frank Glidden, as Dale’s oldest son, Kerry, did an extremely fine job in his small but pivotal role.

To try and capture the life of a man who was, in many ways, “bigger than life” is extraordinarily difficult. This movie could have easily been an hour or more longer and still only touched on many of the highlights of Dale’s racing career, his business interests (he can be credited with creating the racing souvenir business virtually single-handedly), his well-known, deep friendship with Richard Childress, which was not explored in any depth, the phenomena of his vital charisma and his friendships across many other sports and industries. In the fall of 2000, Dale, along with three other partners, bought the now Kannapolis Intimidators baseball team in an effort to save the franchise. Ernie Irvan got his start in Winston Cup thanks to Dale Earnhardt. Other drivers were helped out countless times (with a solemn notice that they’d best never divulge where the assistance came from) by Dale Earnhardt. This was a face the Intimidator kept private. His acts of generosity and charity were countless and by his own decree un-reported. It was a Herculean effort by the writer to cut thru to the essence of the story of Dale’s early years and not get sidetracked with a million vignettes.

This film touched factually with moderate depth upon the first two failed marriages, Dale’s burning need to race and the impoverished life in a mill-town in the South. Determined to make it as a racer, Dale quit school while in the 9 th grade (much to his father’s angry dismay) and subsequently worked at the Cannon mills in Kannapolis, NC, where he was born, trying to put enough food of the table and find money to race locally. Dale’s first two marriages did not survive the struggles, and he found himself literally “robbing Peter to pay Paul,” in order to try and gain a foothold in racing, developing his own aggressive, winner-take-all style along the way.

As Ralph Earnhardt noted gruffly to Dale, while trying to hide the pride he felt in his son, he had something that “you can’t put in a man – and you can’t take out of him.” He recognized his own mirrored passion for racing in his son. For those who do not know much about Dale Earnhardt’s early life, this film gives a perceptive understanding of the sometimes volatile relationship between Dale and his well-known father. A relationship which would remain unresolved after Ralph Earnhardt’s untimely death of a massive heart attack at age 45 in 1973, before Dale achieved his own success behind the wheel of a Winston Cup car.

Ralph Earnhardt’s philosophy on winning, as he was often quoted, was, "It's not the one with the fastest car, it's the one who refuses to lose." Other drivers have since tried to steal this motto for their own, but it is one that truly defined Ralph and Dale Earnhardt’s brilliant racing careers.

ESPN’s network will be repeating the movie during the next few weeks, and the DVD is now available as well. This movie is well worth watching, whether you’re a Ralph or a Dale Earnhardt fan, a long-time race fan, a sports fan, or a “new” race fan who is trying to understand the history of the sport.

For information on Valerie Wood's novel, Enforcer, visit http://www.enforcer.fcpages.com/ (Official Website for Enforcer) or http://www.1stbooks.com/bookview/14441 (Publisher's Website/read an excerpt).  

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