MILWAUKEE – The biography “Dale” provides an unprecedented and insightful look into an American sports icon through both the camera’s lens and the eyes of those who knew Dale Earnhardt well.

The collaboration between NASCAR Images and CMT Films opens this month in Florida and then essentially follow the Nextel Cup Series throughout the season.

It is a well done film to be sure, one that will bring tears to dedicated fans of the seven-time Winston Cup champion and his black No. 3 car.

For them, “Dale” will be a must-see.

For racing fans, it should be a priority.

And for the merely curious, it’s $8.50 well spent.

“I was sitting there thinking, they were going to make a movie about Dad . . . what have I not seen?” said a somewhat biased viewer named Dale Earnhardt Jr. “Am I just going to be sitting through a whole bunch of stuff I already knew and watched and seen before?

“The entire movie, I’d never seen any of it before. If it felt behind-the-scenes for me, imagine how it’s going to feel to the fans. I was amazed. Blown away. It’s just perfect.”

Earnhardt’s quest for a Daytona 500 title serves as one of the two main threads that runs throughout the film, along with a philosophic interview done while the champ fished in a pond on his property.

His rise from dropout to multimillionaire is properly chronicled, as is his mischievous side.

A person with a heart cannot sit through the film without feeling for the children of his first marriages, son Kerry, daughter Kelley and Dale Jr. The kinship Senior shared with Junior as they raced together in the Cup Series stands as black-and-white contrast to Junior’s craving for attention as a child.

The problem with any sort of sanctioned look at history, though, is that it necessarily comes from a point of view. While fairly complete – maybe even surprisingly complete – “Dale” still leaves conspicuous gaps.

How can it include a conversation about friendship but not mention Earnhardt’s pal Neil Bonnett ?

How can it ignore the rivalry with Jeff Gordon, who has come as close as anyone to succeeding Earnhardt as the face of the sport?

How can Earnhardt’s disdain for safety innovations be ignored, considering the manner in which he died and the progress made since?

So is “Dale” perfect? No. Neither was Earnhardt, as a man, a father or a driver. But he was still very, very good.

Forget about Denver

The troubled Denver race has been removed from Champ Car’s schedule for 2007 with the series conflicts involving the timing and facilities at the downtown course.

Also, it will not return for 2008 because of the city hosting the Democratic National Convention.

Back at the Brickyard

ABC will pull Rusty Wallace off his NASCAR broadcasting gig to put him back in the booth at Indy this May, he told the Journal Sentinel.

The 1989 Winston Cup champion also will return to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in July for the debut of the ABC/ESPN portion of the Nextel Cup schedule.

“I’ve got an opportunity this year to do what I don’t know that anyone’s done,” said Wallace, who worked the Indy Racing League telecasts last season.

“It doesn’t mean a lot to most people, but to me it’s really important as a driver an now as a broadcaster that I can say, “You know what? I got to call the IRL, I got call the Indy 500, I got to call the Chase for the championship, I got to call basically all of NASCAR and I got to come back and call the Indy 500 again.’ “

Two and two

With the return of Sarah Fisher to Dreyer & Reinbold for at least a partial schedule, she and Danica Patrick will give the Indy Racing League two female drivers again.

Fisher is scheduled to run the ovals, the team said this week, joining newcomer Buddy Rice, who will complete full time.

Make it on your own

NASCAR said this week that past champions and their teams would be eligible for no more than six provisional starts in a season.

Oops

A reference here last week incorrectly stated Robby Gordon’s finish in the Dakar Rally as 15th. He was eighth in the 15-stage event.

Quotable

Jerry Punch, host for NASCAR on ABC/ESPN, on sports broadcasters who also work as product pitchmen:

“I can’t imagine that Walter Cronkite, you’d ever see him out selling lipstick or something like that.”

Cool-down laps

Team owner, former Milwaukee Mile promoter and one-time driver Carl Haas will be inducted Saturday into the Sports Car Club of America Hall of Fame for his contributions to the sanctioning body. . . .

Indianapolis 500 and IndyCar Series champion Dan Wheldon is expected to test a NASCAR Busch Series car for owner Chip Ganassi.

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(c) 2007, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

Visit JSOnline, the Journal Sentinel’s World Wide Web site, at http://www.jsonline.com/

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

AP-NY-02-02-07 1754EST