Tim Richmond broke the NASCAR mold. He did not come into the sport the ‘normal’ way, he did not race the ‘normal’ way and he certainly did not have a ‘normal’ racing career.

Richmond was born into wealth as the son of a welder-turned-inventor. While most of NASCAR’s early stars were born into poverty and struggled to make enough money to race, Richmond was given a go-kart when he was barely old enough to walk.

He raced for fun as a kid and at the age of 21 made his first laps in a sprint car. After multiple wrecks in his first year racing sprints, his father bought him a supermodified. In ‘77 Richmond won Rookie of the Year honors as well as the supermodified class championship at Sandusky Speedway.

The following year, Richmond won Rookie of the Year honors in the USAC national sprint car tour and then went on to race in multiple series including USAC’s Silver Crown Series and IndyCar.

In ’80, Richmond was the first of many drivers to switch from open-wheel to NASCAR. He made his debut at Pocono and finished 12th. The following year Richmond raced for three different teams beginning with D. K. Ulrich, followed by Kennie Childers and he ended the season driving for Bob Rogers with a total of six top-10 finishes throughout the season.

At the start of the ’82 season, Richmond was out of a ride. He was picked up by Billie Harvey for a one-race deal at Rockingham and then J. D. Stacy put Richmond in his No. 2 car. By the end of the year, Richmond had two victories, both at road courses, under his belt and one pole award.

 Richmond’s career really took off in ’83 when he began racing for Raymond Beadle. He secured another win, fifteen top-10 finishes and four more poles. Richmond ended the next two seasons, his final two driving for Beadle, 12th and 11th in points, respectively.

The young Hendrick Motorsports team grabbed Richmond for the ’86 season and together they achieved seven wins, one of which came in the first race at the newly re-opened Watkins Glen International. In addition to the victories, the team managed 13 top-5 finishes and a career best 3rd place finish in final points. The National Motorsports Press Association named him Co-driver of the year alongside Dale Earnhardt that season. Unfortunately, ’86 was the last full season of Richmond’s career.

He was noticeably absent from the ’87 Daytona 500 due to a health problem that turned out to be AIDS. It was never discovered how he had contracted the disease but it ended his stellar career and his life prematurely. He only raced in a handful of events that year and visited Victory Lane twice; his final win came at Riverside.

As the news of his illness became public, NASCAR subjected Richmond to a drug test and suspended him after claiming he tested positive for a banned substance. According to the New York Times, the drug test results showed “two nonprescription drugs found in over-the-counter remedies for allergies and respiratory conditions” and Richmond later passed a second drug test and was reinstated by NASCAR but was never able to get back behind the wheel.

During his last public appearance a few months before his death, Richmond “denied having abused drugs and said a mistake had been made in the test he failed,” according to the New York Times.

Richmond passed away on August 13, 1988 at the age of 34.

Earlier this year, the inaugural Tim Richmond Memorial ARCA/REMAX 200 was run at Mansfield Motorsports Park near his hometown in Ohio. In an article released by the track prior to the event, Richmond’s former car owner Rick Hendrick was quoted saying: “Tim’s never gotten the full credit he should have received. He would have been one of the all-time greats in our sport.”

When Richmond came to NASCAR, he showed the sport something they had never seen. He proved that a different kind of person could come to the track and give Dale Earnhardt a run for his money. He showed them how to push a car to its limits and he showed them all how to win.

He will forever be remembered as a true legend of this sport.

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