Dale Earnhardt Jr. brings NASCAR history to life with TV series – USA TODAY

MOORESVILLE, N.C. – NASCAR fans have heard about men like Raymond Parks and Red Byron, stock car racing pioneers who helped shape the sport.

But most don’t know exactly what they did in NASCAR’s early days, and their personalities are even more of an unknown.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. had that in common with race fans until he helped create a new docudrama series, and he hopes fans will be enlightened as well.

Earnhardt is the executive producer of CMT’s “NASCAR: The Rise of American Speed” which debuts at 9 p.m. ET Sunday with the first episode in a three-part series.

The show features historic footage combined with a story told through reenactments, similar to History Channel miniseries like “The Bible,” “The World Wars” and “America: The Story of Us.”

“It almost gives you a sense that you’re watching the real thing happen,” Earnhardt told USA TODAY Sports on Tuesday. “I like that, and I learned a ton. I recognize the names – I know this guy was the first champion we ever had or this guy did this, but I don’t know anything else. And you find out this guy was cantankerous or this guy was willing to work with Mr. France. You get a peek into their personalities a little bit, and you end up becoming a fan of one based on how the stories are being told.”

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The series follows NASCAR from its roots to the major league sport it’s become over the last two decades. Sunday’s episode shows how Bill France Sr. brought Southern bootleggers together and helped legitimize racing, while future episodes show NASCAR’s ascension to the mainstream and how TV turned drivers into superstars.

One of Earnhardt’s favorite stories – one he’d never heard – was how the 1979 Daytona 500 nearly didn’t air. A rain delay put network executives on the verge of pulling the plug, which meant NASCAR’s first televised flag-to-flag race – the one that ultimately launched NASCAR into the national consciousness – might not have happened.

PHOTOS: In the driver’s seat with Dale Earnhardt Jr.

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That means viewers wouldn’t have seen the famous fight between Cale Yarborough and Bobby Allison on the infield grass, which created a water cooler moment around the country.

“If that race doesn’t get shown on TV, they lose everything,” Earnhardt said. “There’s no telling where we’d be had that not happened. … There will be a lot of people watching this who are hearing these stories for the first time.”

Earnhardt said he stayed out of the storytelling process – the series enlisted plenty of historians for that – but did play a role in getting the details right. He wanted a garage scene to look as realistic as possible, for example, because previous racing shows or movies have sometimes missed the mark.

“I’ve seen a couple things in the past and that always annoyed me, how things don’t match or how the car is the complete wrong make or model,” he said. “It just really takes away from the realness. … I think casual fans are going to learn a lot of new stuff, even about the modern days.”

The series also features interviews from all sorts of NASCAR personalities, from Earnhardt to Jeff Gordon, Richard Petty, Tony Stewart and Brian France.

Follow Gluck on Twitter @jeff_gluck