Earnhardt

How do I turn it on?

How do I turn it on?

- It's on. - Now?

Yeah, it's rollin'.

Hey, buddy. My old pal. My old hard-headed Earnhardt.

- How you doin', pal? - Ready.

Good.

Do you think your reputation on the track

has made you misunderstood off the track, as far as who Dale Earnhardt really is?

How long did you race before you reckon' you were really good?

You had to know that you could beat guys.

You like the anti-hero image you have,

the Man in Black, the Intimidator?

There were people, Dale, who said sometimes success can be a bad thing.

You sacrifice your family, you sacrifice everything.

You put your whole life into what you're doin'.

If your dad was here, what do you think he'd say?

You talk about how long it takes to feel physical pain.

How long does it take you to get over the mental pain?

What is the story behind the Man in Black?

I mean, what drives Dale Earnhardt?

And around goes Earnhardt, up in the air.

All right. We're ready.

It's hot in here.

Part of what we're gonna do is...

I don't care, just ask the question.

For a feature.

What feature?

An up-close-and-personal on Dale Earnhardt.

You have to do more than this shit.

Come ride around the farm with me, I'll show you personal Dale Earnhardt bullshit.

Was there ever a time you didn't think about being a race car driver?

Probably when I was born. I didn't know any better.

I mean, from the get-go, with your dad and everything.

I mean, racing was all you knew.

All I ever remember is racing.

So, you know, from the time I can remember, racing.

When you grow up in the Southeast,

we didn't have professional sports.

We didn't have baseball, basketball, football.

We had racing. That was it.

There was a local short track everywhere.

Every gas station, somebody knew somebody that run local.

They raced, because they could make more money ridin' around in circles

than they could workin' 7:00 to 4:00 in a mill.

It's a way of life.

Good afternoon, sports fans,

at NASCAR's Grand National stock car racing.

Man, this exciting NASCAR season

has got everybody talking stock car racing.

Everybody has their favorite they're pulling for,

and they want to win.

At that time in the sport, it was a changing of the guard.

You had the old guard...

Cale Yarborough, David Pearson,

Buddy Baker, Bobby Allison,

and the king of stock car racing, Richard Petty.

I think it's more exciting, in the sense

that the competition and everything is so much better now.

I think I get jacked up a little bit more for racing now than I used to.

We all looked up to Richard.

I mean, Richard was the King.

Richard Petty, the King.

And so, we all wanted to be at least as good as he was,

if not better.

A driver has to be good and lucky.

Darrell Waltrip, do you feel lucky today?

No, but I feel good.

You know, I think that Darrell Waltrip had seen himself

as the heir apparent to the old guard.

An interesting, perhaps changing of the guard

taking place this year, with Darrell Waltrip up on top

and two rookies in the top six in the point standings.

He had put in his eight or ten years to get to that point.

But when he turned around, there was another guy standin' there

that slid in behind him to take his crown.

And it was Earnhardt.

Number two, Dale Earnhardt, Kannapolis, North Carolina.

As a rookie, a new kid on the block,

do you get intimidated running with the Pettys and the Waltrips?

Nah, we get along pretty good. So, I think it's gonna be a hell of a race.

I think it was '79 in Bristol.

Dale was driving for Osterlund at the time, a 2 car.

We were racing each other.

We were passin' and passin' and passin'.

The battle is between Dale Earnhardt and Darrell Waltrip.

They were dueling side-by-side going for across the stripe.

And he had bumped me out of the way to get the lead,

and then he won the race.

I said to myself, "You have got to be kidding me. Who is this guy, anyway?"

And then, we became rivals.

Darrell Waltrip back to within catching distance of Earnhardt.

He was somebody you had to reckon with every week.

Earnhardt has the inside covered.

Darrell being forced to go high in three.

Earnhardt not intimidated.

He won Rookie of the Year in 1979.

Well, I won the Bassmaster Classic in 1979.

And bass fishing was bigger than NASCAR in 1979.

When Earnhardt won,

he got a 742 Remington 30-06 deer rifle

and a Weaver scope. Total value, $400.

And he thought he had made the big time.

Four hundred dollars.

I was racing on credit and borrowed time, more or less.

Pretty much in debt. And I was looking for the big chance.

I used to listen to the race on the radio at home,

listening to Richard Petty and Cale and those guys racin',

and dreamin' about being there someday myself,

and wonderin' what it'd be like.

And it's just the biggest thrill I've ever had.

I never wanted anything as much as I want to race.

I've let it get in my way of personal feelings a lot of times,

and I've chosen racing every time.

I can have all kind of problems, and people will say,

"Well, doesn't it bother you on the race track?

Don't you think about it on the race track?"

I think about beatin' the guy in front of me or behind me.

Why would you want to do something that you know darn well

could turn around and bite you, could kill you?

I ain't never wanted to do anything else.

'Scuse me, who you pullin' for today?

Uh, Bobby Allison.

- Why? - Well, I like a Ford.

Who you gonna cheer for today?

- Richard Petty. - How come?

'Cause I want to, that's why.

I got to go with Dale Earnhardt. He's probably one of my favorites now.

Why?

I like to see the young boys run with 'em. You know what I mean?

In 10th position will be Dale Earnhardt.

You can't say enough about this young driver.

Last year, he made the veterans sit up and take notice of his driving style.

The whole team was... we were all new. I was new.

Do you feel a lot of pressure?

Uh, not... Well, there's more pressure now, but I'm tryin' to put it aside.

We're trying to win this championship this year.

It'll be the first time a rookie has ever won Rookie of the Year

and went on the next year to win the championship.

You always strive to get to the top. You want to be the best.

So, you had to put a year together, 32, 34, 36 races.

Get as many wins as you could,

get as many points as you could,

and hopefully hang on and win the championship.

There's some people in front of me that are, uh, I'm maybe not one to talk,

but they're lesser experienced than I am.

And lesser-experienced drivers, no matter how good they are,

sometimes cause problems.

Some of us rode awhile, raced awhile, rode awhile, raced awhile.

Dale raced all the time.

He didn't care.

He was hard on a car.

He would wear a car out.

Here's Dale Earnhardt in the pits,

as they try to tape the thing back together.

He drove the hell out of it every race.

Every lap, every inch.

You talk about horse racing. Look at that.

That number 2 is running really tough out here today.

What people don't realize,

in that race car, if you take your head and you go...

That's what it's like.

It's like your brains, your fluid in your head

and your eyeballs vibratin' so bad.

He was comfortable being out of control.

He'd be laid back in the seat, leanin' to the side,

lookin' out the side window.

That's how he got comfortable.

Dale Earnhardt jumps on the brakes

and barely misses Richard Petty.

But when it all did all come together,

it's like, all of a sudden, he's drivin' his butt off.

He's passin' people left and right. We were having good pit stops.

I mean, everything's gotta click.

You know what it is, Darrel?

Yeah, it's smokin'.

He doesn't know what the problem is.

Sitting there fuming and waiting for things to get better.

Dale Earnhardt currently leads the Grand National points standing

in the chase for the national driving title.

The edge is what you have to find to win NASCAR racing.

Do you take that chance and run that car in

a little bit deeper, that it might not stick?

You have to be able to run every lap on the edge,

just flirtin' with disaster.

Look at that precision driving, right to the line.

Earnhardt will win it.

In the victory lane, it is absolute ecstasy.

I think he's a little shocked.

It's somethin' else. I just can't handle it.

This team has really worked hard, and it's comin' all together now.