Dale Earnhardt Jr. is a known history buff and has a strong affinity for everything with a vintage hue. It is why he is now actively working on the second season of the Becoming Earnhardt podcast segment. The first season debuted in 2023 and covered the entirety of the 1979 Cup Series season with Dale Earnhardt Sr. as the protagonist.
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It offered a detailed look at The Intimidator’s journey to his first career victory and Rookie of the Year honors. The second season will pick up from there and cover the 1980 Cup Series season. Junior recently spoke about the venture on The Dale Jr. Download and shared how it all began.
Junior had been to his aunt’s house after his grandmother passed away and found a couple of scrapbooks in there. The books were made by his aunt back in the day and held every news article around Dale Sr. from 1979 and 1980. The depth and detail that these articles carried inspired Junior to create a podcast series around the period and he did it successfully.
Giving a teaser ahead of the release, Junior said, “There is a high-profile split with crew chief Jake Elder. How Jake handles that in the media is wild. Jake goes off the rails, Jake comes back on the rails. It’s just wild. Dad and Cale (Yarborough) get nippy in the media late in the year. Cale actually is real critical of Dad on the racetrack.”
“Just watching that, kind of reliving, putting yourself in the moment, going back through that particular year — I think it’s really fun for me,” he added. As much as a fan would, Junior is excited about diving deep into a part of Dale Sr.’s life that is quite hazy from the viewpoints available in 2025.
After recording for the series in his studio last month, he expressed his happiness on X. He wrote, “This series is an opportunity for all of us to learn about the quirky nature of the race teams and the cantankerous personalities that filled up the @NASCAR garages back then. I’m massively nostalgic for the past historical moments in NASCAR competition, so this series is a ton of fun for me.”
Meanwhile, the Earnhardt docuseries that was recently released on Prime Video was also met with positive feedback from the fandom. Expectations are that this deep dive into Dale Sr.’s 1980 season will receive a similar reception.
