The wait is finally over. The Netflix-NASCAR special docuseries will premiere on January 30, the production house confirmed. Titled “Full Speed”, a trailer for the five-episode show was released on Wednesday. Every racing fan going gaga over the quality of production and camera work, racing icon Dale Earnhardt Jr. has noticed one surprising factor about it.
Advertisement
Appreciating the efforts that the producers have taken, Junior wrote on his X handle, “The production team nailed it. The camera work, audio. It’s captivating, but the access the drivers provide is the most surprising aspect.” He also noted that the show appears to be the best promotion that the sport has got in a while now.
Each of the five 45-minute episodes will cover the lives of the 2023 playoff 16 drivers and provide access into their highly technical world like never before. Words + Pictures and NASCAR Studios are the production houses that made the show possible. The list of executive producers includes high-level executives from these houses and Dale Earnhardt Jr., himself.
I can’t wait for folks to see this. It’s simply fantastic. The production team nailed it. The camera work, audio. It’s captivating, but the access the drivers provide is the most surprising aspect. It’s the best promotion of NASCAR I’ve seen in a long long while. https://t.co/14Mgpopir8
— Dale Earnhardt Jr. (@DaleJr) January 11, 2024
The first announcement about the show came back in August. Filming began a few weeks later before the postseason began in September. Full Speed will be the second NASCAR program to hit Netflix after Race: Bubba Wallace. Netflix’s synopsis of Full Speed reading, “In the world of NASCAR, being a badass is only the beginning”, only builds up the anticipation manifolds.
The impact of F1’s ‘Drive to Survive’ that makes ‘Full Speed’ an interesting prospect
NASCAR’s expectation with Full Speed is that it will mimic the results in viewership increase of Formula One’s Drive to Survive. The latter turned out to be a blockbuster of a program that made F1’s popularity sore in America. Many studies analyzing the impact of Drive to Survive, The Athletic churned out the fact that the sport’s fanbase grew by 5 million between 2019 and 2022.
The study also said that the fifth season of the program had a viewership of 224 million minutes at the time of publishment. The effects were such that it led to Formula One having three events in the United States at Austin, Miami, and Las Vegas.
NASCAR’s Senior Vice President says of Full Speed, “People are going to see it up close and see the beating and the banging and the aggressiveness of the drivers, but also the skill of the drivers — and what they’re able to do with a race car [driving at] 200 miles an hour, around 38 other race cars, hitting the same spot for 400 miles.”
Regardless of whether the numbers of Drive to Survive are replicated or not, Full Speed is certain to be a never-seen-before look into the world of NASCAR.
