A documentary on NASCAR and its fans, “ESPN Ultimate NASCAR” features Jerry Punch hosting and narrating this program focusing on the state of the sport. Narrated by J.K. Simmons (“3: The Dale Earnhardt Story”, “Spiderman”) the documentary has plenty of behind-the-scenes shots and plenty of interviews. The one thing it really could use more of are racing highlights. Jeff Gordon, Jeff Burton and Richard Petty (somehow I was less than interested in hearing Tom Wolfe had to say about the sport)are among many of the drivers that are interviewed in the documentary. Although we see bits and pieces of various races (including the 2001 Daytona 500 where Earnhardt was killed in a fiery crash although ESPN wisely did not include footage of this) the documentaries point is celebrate and enshrine NASCAR as an American tradition so don’t approach this expecting to follow a large part of any one race. ---

Image & Sound:

The DVD looks good considering the fact that it was shot on video and was drawn from a variety of video sources, the documentary looks quite good. Audio sounds fine as well particularly during the racing scenes when sound pounds out of the speakers.

We get a variety of special features including extended interviews with the drivers, footage of a 1972 Darlington Infield race drawn from a 16mm documentary. “Talladega Night 2006” was shot 19 hours before the first race showing fans camping, waiting and discussing the upcoming event. The “Evolution of NASCAR on ESPN” features Godwin Kelley, Davey Allison and Darrel Waltrip discussing NASCAR and its importance to the growth of ESPN.

Final Words: