Life in Death: The 1987 Miller High Life 500

Tim Richmond harbored a secret that not even he was willing to believe. Despite the joyful and excited facade, the thirty-one year old would be battling with a much darker reality. Less than a year ago he was the driver with the most wins. But now, in 1987, there were many who didn't believe he belonged in a car. Nearly everyone was convinced he couldn't return to his winning ways after months away. Certainly he couldn't. But then...

It had been a trying few months in the number 25 garage. Hendrick realized the potential of Richmond, but also recognized how Tim wasn't stretched to those limits of his potential. Therefore, to extract all that he had, Harry Hyde would be hired to be Tim's crew chief. The two men were polar opposites. Hyde came from a military background, Tim from a party. Both were great at their jobs. The difficulty was getting them to come together to become exceptional.

The two began to learn each other's language and the dividends were apparent. Richmond would find a level of performance he could sustain that rattled even the 'Intimidator', Dale Earnhardt. Then came Pocono.

Historically, Pocono had always been one of Tim's best venues. He scored a win their in the past and always maintained competitiveness each and every visit. Events would play into his hands and he would go on to win the race in 1986. It would be the first of two victories at Pocono that year and the first of seven victories scored in total.

Richmond would not win the championship in 1986. However, he would win more races than any other driver and would end up NASCAR's Driver of the Year. His career was on a meteoric climb rate.. It was assumed, as he stood there before his peers at the awards ceremony, that here was a champion in the making.

Everything was mysterious. Rumors swirled; Tim denied. He even denied the truth to himself. Tell a lie long enough and people will believe it. Tim was certainly hanging onto an untrue story. And he undoubtedly wanted to believe it. Though the speculation swelled, the truth of Richmond's positive result for AIDS remained a heavily-guarded secret. Certainly the life of the party was high on something. At least that was some of the rumors. But what people didn't know was that Tim wasn't high on life. He was on drugs just to live his life.

No matter what Tim believed, especially because of the condition from which he suffered, Tim didn't belong behind the wheel of a race car. He sold NASCAR, and the public, on the farce he was actually getting better. He had sold himself on that lie. Therefore, climbing into the car didn't appear as dangerous as what it was.

Putting the danger aside, it seemed impossible Richmond could be anywhere near as competitive as he had been the previous season after such a long time away, let alone pick up where he had left off toward the end.

In spite of all the predictions of gloom and doom, Tim would end up the third-fastest qualifier, meaning he would start the 1987 Miller High Life 500 from the second row of the field. It would be amazing. Though weakened by the immune disease, Richmond would seem to come to life in the car. It would be fitting the name of the race. It was as if, when in the car, he was living the high life, it was as if he was healed. But, when he was outside the car, not doing what he believed to be his purpose, he was close to death.

In reality, Richmond's name, throughout much of the early part of the race, would be mentioned without much of a hint of importance or achievement. It was as if the lie Tim himself propagated, that he was on the mend, was actually true. Keeping Terry Labonte in sight from second place through the first few laps of the race, Richmond showed absolutely no signs of being affected by his suspected illness.

Tim would drive possessed. It would take only a few laps before he would find his groove and he would surprise, and delight, all by taking the lead from Labonte. Over the course of the next few laps Tim would stretch that lead stunning everybody as to his ability after such a long time away.

Richmond declared that he was strong and feeling fine leading up to the race at Pocono and he would prove it lap after lap. Tim was pulling away from the field, despite the fact Bill Elliot and Dale Earnhardt led the chase after him.

It was easy to believe there had been nothing wrong with Richmond at all after the way the first half of the race had gone. It was remarkable. Instead of fading, being left behind because of a lack of endurance and strength, Richmond kept pace and remained in touch with the head of the field.

Earnhardt had already earned the nickname 'Intimidator'. Tim had never been intimidated by Earnhardt, and, even enjoyed toying with the man in car number three. It wasn't even worth talking about what had sidelined the Ohioan for months. The way he was driving, it was just an extension of 1986.

Hustling his Chevrolet Monte Carlo around the 2.5 mile tri-oval, Richmond would be the class of the field. Despite losing a lap halfway into the race, though death was knocking on his door, he was not going to say die. He knew he had a fast car. He just had a lot of work ahead of himself. It wouldn't matter much as he would be able to haul in any competitor, and pull away from the rest. His performance would be an incredible show for the large crowd assembled around and within the track.

Dale Earnhardt was fast all race long. The winner of six of the first eight races of the season, Dale didn't even have to come to the race and he would still have the lead in the championship. Tim, unfortunately, wasn't in the championship picture in '87, but he wasn't about to let the Intimidator run away with the race. Charging through the field, Tim would put on a show that would delight the fans. Earnhardt may have had his diehard fans, but many of them would be willing the number 25 Monte Carlo forward.

Having fallen down a lap around the halfway mark of the race, most people had written Richmond's fairy-tale return off. His performance had been admirable, but just not good enough with Earnhardt's impressive lead and pace.

But, Richmond had to know his opportunities to sit behind the wheel of a racing car were growing fewer and fewer in number. This would be all the motivation he needed as he put together the most improbable of all performances. The fairy-tale was not over yet.

Even a lost gear would not be able to deter Richmond's first race of 1987. Regaining his lost lap, Richmond pushed hard with every single lap. Slow on restarts but fast every moment afterward, Tim would put together a march toward the front that was absolutely moving. Heading into the final few laps of the race, it would be hard to believe that even the most critical of Richmond's personal life would not be cheering him forward after the performance he had put on.

After a long day of leading, nearly being out of it and then fighting to get back to the front again Richmond had a possible victory within his grasp. Running down Earnhardt, Tim was turning back time. He wasn't knocking on the door of death, he was continuing his 1986 campaign.

Earnhardt would be all but helpless. Dale's intimidator would flash by completing an improbable run back to the lead. Dale would pressure Tim right to the very end, but he wasn't about to undermine Richmond's indescribable run. The racing would be tight, nerve-racking and generally too much for a heart to take. The race meant everything to the man determined to cheat death. He was not going to be denied.

Flashing across the line with his arm raised out the window, Tim would demonstrate he owned Pocono. The improbable victory would make it three in a row at Pocono. Tears filling his eyes as he powered his way toward the line, the moment wouldn't be lost on Tim. No matter the lies and the misdirection given to the public, even to himself, there was no denying the truth lingered in the back of Richmond's mind. The tears were plentiful, time was not.

Believing for the best, the performance put on by Tim that day at Pocono would have himself and others convinced his NASCAR career was restarted. When interviewed after the spraying of the beer and the celebrations, Richmond would be very blunt stating he just needed to go to Riverside and do it again. Incredibly, he would do just that. Two wins in a row! Just maybe his word was true.

It would be hard to believe that just a year later this once vibrant character of NASCAR, the dominator of Pocono, would be a pale, sad shell of his former self looking death right in the face. Shut off from the rest of the world, frail and failing, the motor racing world would seem far, far away. Yet, even though he was to pass away in August of 1989, lost forever and never able to challenge for victory again, his incredible run at Pocono, while death awaited, would serve as perhaps the greatest drive of his life. In the face of death, he had lived.

Sources:
1987 NASCAR Winston Cup Miller High Life 500 @ Pocono (Full Race). Video. (1987). Retrieved 4 June, 2015 from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iwz2_N6WZyE.

Hinton, Ed. 'More than Tim Richmond Died in 1989,' (http://sports.espn.go.com/rpm/nascar/cup/columns/story?columnist=hinton_ed&id=4394325). ESPN:NASCAR. http://sports.espn.go.com/rpm/nascar/cup/columns/story?columnist=hinton_ed&id=4394325. Retrieved 4 June 2015.

Jensen, Tom. '25 Years Later: What Might Have Been; Richmond vs. Earnhardt.', (http://www.foxsports.com/nascar/story/25-years-later-what-might-have-been-tim-richmond-vs-dale-earnhardt-081214). Fox Sports: NASCAR. http://www.foxsports.com/nascar/story/25-years-later-what-might-have-been-tim-richmond-vs-dale-earnhardt-081214. Retrieved 4 June, 2015.

30 for 30 (Tim Richmond To The Limit). Video. (2012). Retrieved 4 June, 2015 from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ixtY03UT55g.

Photo credit: Daniel Vaughan
posted on conceptcarz.com

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