Becoming Earnhardt Vol. 7 - Back In The Fight

The Dale Jr. Download

Dirty Mo Media & SiriusXM

Sports

5 • 8.4K Ratings

🗓️ 20 December 2025

⏱️ 38 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

As we roll into the CRC Chemicals 500 at Dover Downs International Speedway, our hero Dale Earnhardt has settled back into his role as driver of the Osterlund Racing number 2. However, six weeks out of the action has compromised his stamina, and his first race back the prior week in Richmond saw him seeking out assistance from fellow racer Lennie Pond. 500 miles at the challenging, high-banked one-mile oval in Delaware is demanding enough for a healthy driver, but for someone who is still mending two broken collarbones it’s unthinkable. Then again, that’s the Dale Earnhardt we’ve all come to know so well: never backing down from any challenge

Transcript

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0:00.0	The following is a production of Dirtymo Media.
0:12.0	Critical but stable.
0:16.0	Indeed, J.C. Elder, the crew chief on that car, the Austerlin machine has backed him down a little bit to kind of conserve himself and go as far as he can here this afternoon or if there is a problem on the car. Here's Earnhardt across the striven. What a remarkable story on this youngster all year. He's been one of the top drivers. Very impressive and talent, but so are several of the other rookie drivers. The competition has been extremely close in that battle for the first national city rookie
0:39.4	of the year honors.
0:41.7	Earnhardt, very certainly one of the most impressive in that crop.
0:45.9	When I set out to create becoming Earnhardt, I wanted to tell the story of my dad before he became
0:51.3	the Intimidator, before the 76 wins and the seven championships. I wanted to
0:56.2	tell the original story of the sports greatest superhero through the lens of the sports
1:01.2	greatest season, the 1979 campaign. And through this journey, I've learned so much about my dad,
1:09.4	things that I never knew, and things that honestly
1:12.0	blew my mind, but at the same time, I noticed things that were familiar to me, mannerisms
1:17.1	that I remember being uniquely dad and character traits that made him Dale Earnhardt. But nothing
1:22.6	embodied the man quite like the way he answered this question from the Motor Racing Network prior to the September 1979 race at Dover.
1:31.3	Yesterday as he was sitting in the garage yard I asked him, Dale, how tough was it?
1:35.3	We know you're hurting now, but how tough was it to sit out so many races and watch David Pearson and Jake Elder go to the win in the Southern 500?
1:42.3	How hard was it for you as a rookie?
1:44.4	It was rough and it is getting back in it and hurting. You know, I was real uncomfortable about
1:50.7	watching the car running and not me being. And, you know, we had been building something all
1:55.9	a year as a team and as a competitive end of the rookie race and point chase and everything.
2:02.7	You know, it just defeated me to have to sit and watch the points dwindle back down
2:06.5	and them guys fast in the back.
2:09.6	It was good to get back in it.
	...

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