Pitting

Dale — The Movie comes to Hershey

Area NASCAR fans can see “Dale — The Movie” featuring Dale Earnhardt’s life and legacy, on Wednesday, May 23, in Hershey. The Hershey Theatre at 15 E. Caracas Ave. will show the film at 7 p.m. and 9:30 p.m.

It’s unfortunate that there is no screening in York since there are so many fans here. But the cost to bring the film to fans is apparently astronomical. That’s why area Chevrolet dealers have joined together to bring the movie to what they considered a central location for Central Pennsylvania fans. Working through their area marketing association, 20 dealers combined to pay to bring the movie to a local theatre so that there is no charge to fans to see it. In other areas, ticket prices average about $10.

I saw the movie in Charlotte in January during the annual NASCAR media tour and highly recommend it. Although I was never a fan of Dale Earnhardt, I found the film to be entertaining, informative, funny, and sad. My only criticism of it is that it goes too easy on Earnhardt’s dark side, instead showing him as merely “mischievous.”

C’mon. He wasn’t called “The Intimidator” for nothing.

Rain, rain, go away…

Richmond is always a race I look forward to. The combination of a night race run at a short track is every race fan’s dream.

Unfortunately, the dream became a nightmare when rain ruined the party. Arriving at the track bright and early this morning, I wasn’t happy to see the rain start almost immediately. The forecast wasn’t promising, but around 5 o’clock, the sun broke through the clouds briefly and the rain miraculously stopped. Track drying began, and all of the race preliminaries started right on schedule.

But as the drivers began pace laps, the rain began to fall. More than two hours later, it is still falling, and the race was finally postponed.

So I’ll be spending extra time here in Richmond. The race is set to begin shortly after 1 o’clock Sunday. 

Rain at a racetrack is miserable, but it could be worse…this could be a dirt track.