The Elusive Eighth (Dale Earnhardt Survives)

The Elusive Eighth is a self directed documentary by Dale Earnhardt that premiered on Fox Sports and NBC simultaneously on November 23rd, 2021 for the 20th anniversary of his eighth championship. It documents every person and every race weekend involved in the 2001 season, and includes snippets of non-racing daily life content as well.
== Opening ==
The documentary begins with a brief overview of Earnhardt's 1994 7th championship season, and the season after, showing the progressive buildup to the 2000 season. The documentary then focuses on how close Dale came to the 2000 championship, also showing how his son Dale Jr. started his own legacy with his win at Texas that year, and includes highlights of that 2nd place points season including Dale's Talladega win. After brief snippets from the rest of 2000, the documentary then goes to the offseason between 2000 and 2001, and shows the planning for 2001 between Earnhardt and team owner Richard Childress.
=== 2001, the Elusive Eighth ===
The namesake of the documentary is the 2001 season, in which Dale won that elusive eighth championship. The season is detailed much more then any other seasons in the documentary, and highlights the 2001 Daytona 500 as Dale's biggest triumph as a team owner, but greatest challenge yet as a driver, having to hold off an entire field of cars and being wrecked on the last turn of the last lap but having his driver Michael Waltrip finally win a race. The documentary shows never before seen footage of Dale Earnhardt Jr. running to the infield care center, and of Earnhardt Sr. being put on oxygen to help him breath as he had the wind knocked out of him and 2 bruised ribs in the wreck due to his chest hitting the steering wheel. It shows everyone coming in to the infield care center to make sure Dale is going to be alright as he's taken off oxygen and begins breathing normally again, it features interviews with team owner Richard Childress, and Ken Schrader, who had been the first to get to Earnhardt and help him stay concious as paramedics arrived and stated that everyone was worried that Earnhardt wouldn't make it that day as the crash was really bad.
After the 2001 Daytona 500 every other race of the season has footage from testing sessions, practice sessions, qualifying and the races themselves, with Earnhardt's whole team being individually interviewed throughout different parts of the documentary. Many others including team owner Richard Childress, and at the time part-time rookie Kevin Harvick alongside Mike Skinner and Robby Gordon, all of Earnhardt's 2001 teammates, are also featured prominently throughout the documentary including Harvick's win in his first ever Winston Cup series race at Atlanta in March.
The documentary ends with Dale's championship race at the end of the year at Atlanta, in which Earnhardt won the race as well as the elusive eighth championship of his career. The New Hampshire 300 is also glanced over, as it featured new RCR driver Robby Gordon repeat Harvick's feat earlier in the year, winning in his first start, and Earnhardt finished 5th in that event.
Category:Dale Earnhardt Survives