3: The Dale Earnhardt Story

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3: The Dale Earnhardt Story
3: The Dale Earnhardt Story movie poster
Directed by	Russell Mulcahy
Produced by	Orly Adelson Lynn Raynor
Written by	Robert Eisele
Starring	Barry Pepper
Music by	Gary Rossington
Distributed by	ESPN
Release date(s)	December 11, 2004
Running time	90 minutes
Language	English
IMDb profile

3: The Dale Earnhardt Story is a 2004 television movie produced by ESPN documenting the life of NASCAR driver Dale Earnhardt, his poor upbringing in Kannapolis, North Carolina, his rise to dominance in NASCAR, his relationship with his son, Dale Earnhardt, Jr., and his death in the 2001 Daytona 500. It was first broadcast on December 11, 2004, and was subsequently released on DVD (although initial quantities quickly sold out). Barry Pepper stars as Dale Earnhardt.

The script of this film was not approved by Teresa Earnhardt and the Earnhardt family. The film, although capturing the essence of Dale Earnhardt, is inaccurate in many of the events seen in the film. Richard Childress, the former car owner and team owner of Dale Earnhardt sued ESPN for copyright infringement with the film's use of the "3" logo.

[edit] Notes

The relationship between Darrell Waltrip and Earnhardt in the film focuses primarily on their fierce rivalry, with little attention given to the friendship that would develop between the two. Waltrip noted this on his website during the runup to the movie. Waltrip even drove for Earnhardt's race team in 1998.

There were many inaccuracies with the racetracks in the movie. In the scene in which Dale drives down the pit road at Daytona International Speedway, the outside wall of the pit road at North Carolina Speedway is visible. Daytona has no pit wall. Also, in the scene after Neil Bonnett died, Teresa and Dale are shown in the grandstands at Daytona. When the track itself is shown, a dogleg in the track is visible. In actuality, Daytona has no dogleg. The scene was shot at Lowe's Motor Speedway.

Many race scenes were shot at North Carolina Speedway, after the track had lost its races and was used mostly as a test track and driving school.

Several of the cars shown in the movie were historically inaccurate. In the moments before the 2001 Daytona 500, the cars of Bobby Labonte, Rusty Wallace, Bill Elliott, Jeff Gordon, and Rick Mast were shown as cars from a different year, with Gordon's easily visible, as the 2001 season was the year the "Rainbow Warrior" livery was replaced with the "Fire and Flames" livery. Also notable was a wrong-year scene featuring Morgan-McClure Motorsports, where a late 1990s Kodak Max film livery was used instead of the Kodak Gold film livery. (The design was based on a box of Kodak film.)

In two different scenes in the movie, the infield of various tracks were shown with flags of drivers who were not driving at that time were shown, such as Tony Stewart's flag at the Darlington race.

Before Dale Earnhardt Jr. is shown going to military school, Teresa expresses concern in the film. At the time, however, Earnhardt, Jr. was in the custody of his biological mother, Dale Earnhardt's second wife.

Neil Bonnett did give a gun to Dale Earnhardt as a gift and their friendship is accurate in the movie.

Sunoco Gasoline is shown on the fuel tankers in the movie, but Union 76 fuel was used in the era. (Sunoco did not sign with NASCAR until the start of the 2004 season. However, it should be noted many short tracks use CAM2 (now Sunoco) Racing Gasoline, even in the 1970s.)

The February 23, 1986 incident at Richmond International Raceway was inaccurately depicted, where Earnhardt spun out Darrell Waltrip with three laps to go. In the film, Earnhardt's now-famous line "I didn't mean to wreck him, I just wanted to rattle his cage a little." was part of the post-race interview. That line, however, was not said at that time. Instead it was said at Bristol on August 29, 1999 after Earnhardt spun out Terry Labonte on the final lap to win the race.

During one of the scenes taking place in the 1970s, Earnhardt is shown placing a money clip on the table holding what is clearly a series 1998 $20 bill.

In Earnhardt's first Daytona 500 start, the movie shows him driving a Chevrolet Monte Carlo. However, he actually drove a Buick.

Realtree was shown as a sponsor during a dirt track race in the 1950's early in the film, but it was not founded until the 1980's.

The death of Dale's father Ralph Earnhardt happened in the kitchen and he was found by his wife. In the film he died in the garage and was found by Dale.

The movie made no mention of his two year stint with car owner Bud Moore from 1982 to 1983.

Dale actually first met Teresa when she was about 16, and he knew she was Hal Houston's daughter. Their meeting is inaccurately portrayed in the movie.

In the scenes of the 2001 Daytona 500, Dale is seen in the movie wearing a helmet with Corvette Racing decals, rather than his GM Goodwrench decaled helmet.