The city of Charlotte briefly turned into Hollywood last May when Prime Video rolled out the red carpet for the premiere of its four-part docuseries on the life of Dale Earnhardt, with its first two episodes debuting. One of the most intriguing aspects of the show was the tidbits it revealed about the life of Dale’s father, Ralph, someone Dale Jr. sadly never got to spend much time with.
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Beyond revisiting the lesser-known parts of one of NASCAR’s most towering figures, the series unearthed rare archival material, including footage featuring Ralph Earnhardt. Dale Jr. explained that while he had seen a clip of his grandfather years earlier, shown to him by Dale Sr., in which Ralph was moving around, he had never actually heard his voice.
The documentary changed that, featuring a rare video of Ralph speaking for the first time Junior could recall.
Dale Jr. praised the production team for tracking down film and video from unlikely places, material that had never surfaced publicly and, in some cases, had not even been known to exist by the family or their closest circle. Those rediscovered pieces came from private collections held by relatives, friends, and individuals who crossed paths with Ralph during his racing years, quietly preserved and largely forgotten.
Stressing how rare such discoveries are, Dale Jr. noted that most archival material related to Ralph remains scattered and difficult to access. Reflecting on his own experience, he said, “So my father showed me a video many many years ago, and dad said that to his understanding this was the only video of Ralph talking and walking and moving around. So there’s I’d never seen Ralph speak, never heard his voice until that day.”
He added, “We watched it, and in my mind for all of my life, that was the only piece, and it’s only a few minutes long. It’s an interview he did after a race at Charlotte, and this this group imagine Kelly talked about how incredibly talented they are. They found new video or video that I’d never seen, and no one had even realized was available.”
While comprehensive viewership figures for the docuseries have not been released, the series made an immediate impact on the platform, reaching No. 1 on Prime Video’s internal charts in the United States shortly after its May 2025 debut.
The project also served as part of Prime Video’s first attempt at covering the NASCAR Cup Series, a slate that averaged 2.16 million viewers across five races, according to data from Nielsen.
