Dale Jr. Relives his father's rookie season with an epic podcast series

If you are like me and have grown up in the area. There is no doubt you grew up a NASCAR fan. If not, a NASCAR fan you undoubtedly at least knew who Dale Earnhardt Sr. was. A few weeks ago Dirty Mo Media a broadcast company owned by Dale Jr. has been reliving the 1979 Rookie Season of Dale Earnhardt Sr. Now it is very likely your fondest memory from that particular season is the fight in the infield of the Daytona 500 between the Allison brothers and Cale Yarborough. The major snowstorm that impacted the east coast that weekend is a memory of mine from a weather perspective. This particular race was also the first live flag to flag coverage of a NASCAR race ever. That race was just a steppingstone to what that season would become and the way in which NASCAR would move forward with a legendary season which coincided with the start of a career of a NASCAR legend!

In 1979, Dale Earnhardt scored the biggest opportunity of his budding career to run in the NASCAR Cup Series full-time for upcoming car owner Rod Osterlund. While there are remnants of that season’s events preserved through television and radio broadcasts, as well as other memorabilia, Dale’s older sister Kaye did what any supportive sibling in the 70s would do: she started scrapbooking. Within these scrapbook pages lie a comprehensive picture of what the 1979 NASCAR season was like from the perspective of the rookie Kannapolis driver. Decades later, it was these very scrapbooks that inspired Dale Earnhardt Jr. to create a new podcast series documenting the monumental season and his father’s rapid, meteoric rise to stock car stardom.

In the first episode we hear about the following....

The landscape of NASCAR in the late ‘70s is unpacked, and the cast of characters who would set out to compete for the season crown of ‘79 are introduced. We also learn how 28-year-old Dale Earnhardt drove his way through the dirt short track ranks of the Charlotte area to land one of the most coveted opportunities in the NASCAR Cup garage, chauffeuring the number-2 blue and yellow stock cars for Osterlund Racing.

In the second episode 

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.

The latest episode of the podcast released this morning discusses the aftermath of the 1979 Daytona 500; NASCAR found itself on an unimaginable trajectory to becoming the biggest form of motorsport in the country. Some 16-million viewers tuned in to watch the flag-to-flag coverage on CBS, and having witnessed the fight, the King and the rest of the action, they were hungry for more. The result was speedway box offices being flooded with ticket requests, and the largest crowds that had ever assembled to take in stock car racing. Rockingham, Richmond, Atlanta, North Wilkesboro and Bristol were next on the schedule to take a turn at entertaining the masses. And luckily, NASCAR had plenty of talent in the garage ready to seize the spotlight.

One of these talents is the 28-year-old from Kannapolis, Dale Earnhardt. Dale established himself as the rising star to watch during his daring, yet calculated performance on the Daytona Highbanks. With the press, fans and racing veterans all singing his praises, he seemed destined to find victory lane. But when would that happen? On this episode of Becoming Earnhardt, we tell the tale of the next five races of the 1979 season and explain how a 500-lap showdown at a bullring nestled in Thunder Valley would propel Dale towards super stardom.

To listen to these episodes and more from Dirty Mo Media Productions visit Dirty Mo Media | Dale Jr. Download Podcast | United States