Digital Cowboy

I finally got around to watching the ESPN original movie “3″ last night. It’s a movie about the life of Dale Earnhardt. I’ve had it on the PVR ever since it premiered in, I think, December. I have no problem confessing that I cried when Dale was killed. (When I watched it live in reality – not in the movie.) It was like losing another part of my father. Not that I thought that much of Dale, but it was something my daddy and I shared. I experienced the same thing when Johnny Carson died recently. (I lost my daddy almost 23 years ago at 12 and I sometimes wonder if I’m ever going to “finish” losing him.)

The movie was pretty lame. It was typical TV movie of the week fare. I was pretty disappointed, really. It explored nothing and glossed over a lot that was important. I kept waiting for it to get good and then realized there was only fifteen minutes left and we had only just gotten to the ’98 Daytona 500 win.

His tragic death and the amazing circumstances around it were almost an afterthought. I guess they were making a movie about his life, but still, his death had significance in a number of ways that they chose to ignore. I’m not so sure it was such an accurate portrayal of his life, either.

Oh, well. Thanks to modern tech in the form of the PVR, it didn’t cost me two hours because I skipped through all the commercials.

I’m glad I got to see Dale and his son racing together in person. The first time that happened was also the only Cup race that Adam Petty ever ran before he was tragically killed. It was at Texas Motor Speedway. Somewhere around here I still have a qualifying day ticket for that weekend with Adam’s picture on it, celebrating his entrance into Cup racing. He was killed just a few weeks later at Hew Hampshire.

I’m not a fanatical NASCAR fan in relative terms, but I’ve been privileged.