Excitement was already building for Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s new television project Lost Speedways, a show in which the 15-time Most Popular Driver and soon-to-be NASCAR Hall-of-Famer immortalizes abandoned race tracks.
But Peacock, the network that will stream Lost Speedways starting July 15, hit us directly in the feels with a trailer-drop on Wednesday, and it was nothing short of amazing:
All eight episodes of Lost Speedways will debut on Peacock July 15. The show is produced by Dirty Mo Media and features Matthew Dillner as Earnhardt's field general. A few of the tracks that will be featured in Season 1 include Occoneechee Speedway in Hillsborough, North Carolina, Middle Georgia Raceway in Byron, Georgia, and Jungle Park Speedway in Rockville, Indiana.
"My reasons for wanting to do this show were purely selfish -- I love the mystique and eeriness of abandoned things, especially when those things are race tracks," Earnhardt said. "Matthew and I have been mapping the locations of abandoned tracks for years, and I always wanted to explore them.
"But this experience made me realize pretty quickly that, like everything else in life, there is more to it than just what you see. We learned there were unsung heroes, remarkable feats, incredible memories, checkered pasts, and unhealed wounds that still needed attention."
Here is what others are saying about Lost Speedways:
Matthew Dillner (Co-Host): "This project has deep emotional meaning for me. I lost my home track many years ago. Islip Speedway in New York was where my father raced and I spent my childhood Saturdays sitting in on wooden bleachers with my family. Even though I was young when it was taken down, the loss created my love and appreciation of history and nostalgia. Years later, I started exploring and documenting lost speedways. After working in NASCAR for years, Dale Jr and I realized that we shared this unique passion. This is the next chapter! Dale’s vision has created the ultimate avenue to not only tell these track’s stories, but bring them to life in a very special way. The emotional interlude between the physical exploration of an abandoned speedway and the imagination brought to life by talking to the characters of their past is what’s fascinating to me. Being a part of these eight episodes of Lost Speedways has been an absolute dream come true."
Mike Davis (Executive Producer): "Lost Speedways isn't as much a racing project as it is an episodic historical documentary on people, places and passions. If you have a place from your past that means something to you -- maybe it's a baseball stadium where you went to your first ball game, a house you grew up in, or your first automobile -- then you will be able to relate to the emotions of Lost Speedways. You'll see that change is inevitable, but it doesn't mean you can't cherish the good times."
-- Dirty Mo --
