‘It was just so seemingly unbelievable’: ‘Earnhardt’ director reflects on Dale Earnhardt’s NASCAR fame, quest for greatness, and tragic death

Dale Earnhardt's death in 2001 sent shockwaves throughout the world of NASCAR unlike any racer's death before or since. "It's not that people didn't die racing," says documentarian Daniel Lindsay, executive producer and co-showrunner of Prime Video's docuseries Earnhardt. "That was apart of the sport. It was just so seemingly unbelievable that the star of the sport would lose his life in that way."

Despite not growing up as a NASCAR fan, Lindsay was nevertheless drawn to Earnhardt's rags-to-riches story. "I came of age in the '80s and '90s, and was aware that there was a racer named Dale Earnhardt," Lindsay told Gold Derby, "but I didn't really know much about him. I found myself fascinated by his life and the life of his family." Born in small-town North Carolina to short-track racer Ralph Earnhardt, Dale "was responsible for the growth of NASCAR," and "through grit and determination put the sport on his back and made it become what it became." He was shocked that his story had not been told in an "elevated, sophisticated way." For Lindsay, Earnhardt was "somebody who should be regarded on the same level as a Michael Jordan, or even a Bob Dylan or Babe Ruth, a true cultural figure."

As Lindsay and his longtime collaborator T.J. Martin poured over everything they could find about Earnhardt, they found that "he was a bit of an enigma. He was that to the people that knew him, he was that way to his own children. That was a fascinating part of this story. He clearly was a charming guy. There's a bit of mischief to him, and in the way that he talked about the sport." Yet that mischievousness didn't mean Earnhardt didn't take racing seriously, and his skill at it made him an icon. "As Americans, we tend to celebrate the people that dominate," Lindsay adds, "and this is someone who dominated the sport in a way that no one ever had before that or has since."

For Lindsay and Martin, the crux of the story had less to do with Earnhardt's racing record and more to do with "the human story. This series is really about a family, and about the impact and legacy that fathers have on their children, and how that gets passed down through generations." That's certainly true of Earnhardt's son, Dale Earnhardt Jr., who followed in his father's footsteps to become a NASCAR legend in his own right. Dale Jr. was one of many family members, friends, and former coworkers to contribute to the series, and their participation was crucial to its success. "We knew that the only way we were going to be able to do this properly was to work with NASCAR," Lindsay says, "and then we approached Dale Jr. and his sister, Kelly, and talked to them about the story we wanted to tell. We were very clear that we weren't interested in making a hagiography. We really wanted to explore the man."

Partnering with NASCAR gave Lindsay and Martin thousands of hours worth of footage to sift through, of which only a small portion would be included in the four hour documentary. "There is no magic way," says Lindsay of the arduous process. "You just have to sort through the footage, find the stuff that's relevant to the story you're telling, and find a way to efficiently display it. It was a herculean task in a lot of ways, and it's chaotic at times." Ultimately, Lindsay believes that he and Martin are "really are trying to create something that is cinematic." Deciding what to put in and what to leave out is "the art of storytelling."

He couldn't have asked for a juicier story than that of the Earnhardt family, which "has these very universal themes of love, loss, family, the desire to be great and at what cost. In some ways, we saw this as a bit of a melodrama," packed with "big emotions and big stakes. It's literally life and death." At its core, the story of Earnhardt is one making sacrifices in the quest for greatness, and how you rationalize that. "As a young driver, his quest was just to be the greatest driver of all time, and we suggest some of the reasons where that motivation is coming from, who he's trying to prove himself to," Lindsay continues. "He changed, and over time, he saw the wreckage of his life that he had left in pursuit of this goal, and he tried to mend some of those mistakes. He was human like all of us. I think the tragic part of his life is that he was probably at a point where he was really trying to reconcile a lot of that stuff when he lost his life."

Lindsay and Martin's careers began with their Oscar-winning documentary Undefeated, which followed a group of underprivileged Memphis high schoolers with a talent for football. Their film LA 92 won an Emmy for Exceptional Merit in Documentary Filmmaking, and they competed for that prize once again for their Tina Turner doc Tina.

Earnhardt, which is produced by Brian Grazer and Ron Howard's Imagine Documentaries, premieres May 22 on Prime Video.