Becoming Earnhardt Vol. 2 - First Impressions

The Dale Jr. Download

Dirty Mo Media & SiriusXM

Sports

5 • 8.4K Ratings

🗓️ 19 July 2023

⏱️ 39 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

It’s January of 1979 and 28-year-old Dale Earnhardt is ready to embark on the greatest challenge he’s faced in his young career to date: a full season in the NASCAR Cup Series. As the teams and haulers head west to California to kick things off, we zero in on the blue-and-yellow Osterlund Racing No. 2, which Dale will chauffeur for the first time on a road course. After a promising afternoon, his overzealousness gets the best of him and the Rookie of the Year spotlight is shifted to another promising newcomer. Once the Los Angeles skyline is behind them, the teams and drivers travel back east, this time on a collision course with history. Thanks to the recent split in the American championship car ranks, the motorsports world was ripe for a new leader. NASCAR had just the bill of excitement to make its case to be a household name in entertainment: Daytona Speedweeks. But little did anyone know what the 1979 rendition of the Great American Race had in store for the world, and how a network television deal, a fight and the return of NASCAR’s King would win over a new generation of stock car fans. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	The following is a production of Dirtymo Media.
0:10.0	With open wheel racing going through a national divorce in 1978, its reign as America's top
0:16.1	brand of motorsports was in doubt.
0:19.3	The timing was perfect for stock cars to come in and capture the hearts and minds of
0:24.3	a country that didn't know if it had a stomach for fenders and vistas.
0:29.2	Well, NASCAR's 1979 season fed us all we wanted and more.
0:35.8	Like NASCAR, 28-year-old rookie Dale Earnhardt was trying to make a name for himself.
0:40.8	Up until that point, people didn't know him as the seven-time champion or one tough
0:46.7	customer.
0:47.5	Whatever notoriety he had was more for being the son of Ralph Earnhardt.
0:53.2	Everything changed in 1979.
0:55.7	Not just in how NASCAR became America's favorite motorsport, but in how my dad became
1:01.8	the Dale Earnhardt, we'd come to know.
1:05.4	I am Dale Earnhardt Jr.
1:06.9	And on this episode of Becoming Earnhardt, we open up the Family Scratch Books to begin
1:12.4	our race by race journey through the 1979 NASCAR season.
1:17.7	And my dad's number two, Australian Racing Team, our first stop, California.
1:23.0	Well, hello everyone from Riverside, California.
1:26.9	I've already honoured Jack DeRude in the entire motor racing network.
1:29.5	Crew ready to bring you the kickoff race of the 1979 Winston Cup Racing season, the
1:34.2	Winston-Western 500.
1:36.0	Riverside International Raceway first opened in 1957 and it was located about 50 miles
	...

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