Tim Richmond Won Southern 500 25 Years Ago Today

On August 31, 1986, the late Tim Richmond won the Southern 500 at Darlington in his last Darlington start. It was his only Darlington triumph in 12 overall Darlington Winston Cup starts.

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"Any Day is Good for Stock Car Racing"
updated by @dave-fulton: 12/05/16 04:02:07PM

i was they tim won it was just like yesterday .tim was all time great driver of his time.just think what tim would done.he would have championship under his belt.

My God!!! Twenty-five years ago? In some ways it seems like yesterday. In other ways it seems like 100 years ago. I miss Tim Richmond. I miss Tim Flock too. Both those Tims participated in the glory days, or good old days of racing. Almost appropriate there is no Tim in Cup racing these days. Thanks for posting. Love memories like this, and yes, I was there too that day.

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What a change! It's been awhile since I've checked in and I'm quite surprised. It may take me awhile to figure it our but first look it's really great.

Wasn't it just about dark when the checkered flag fell? Can't remember why - might have been a delayed start for rain - but I remember Tim staying hammer down to get the win. I think one of his Pocono wins in 1986 was in fog/near darkness as well.

Like Tim Leeming said - its remarkable to me its been a quarter-century since that magical season.

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Schaefer: It's not just for racing anymore.

My man Bill Elliott had the race in the bag, was leading, and got into the turn 1 wall with just a couple of laps left. That was pretty heartbreaking for me as a 10 year old fan, because Bill had a rough 1986- 2 wins, both at Michigan. And of course, he won The Winston at Atlanta, but he was the defending champion of the race in '86, had bided his time to get out front...and was running away with it. Still- Richmond had a pretty remarkable run that year- he had a stretch from the Coca-Cola 600 in May...to the fall race in Richmond- where if you threw out a 15th at Michigan, and a 6th at Bristol, he ran first or second in 10 out of the 12 races in that stretch. Reminds me of the run Darrell Waltrip put together in 1981 from Nashville in July thru the Atlanta race that November (13 races) where he finished 1st, 1st, 2nd, 2nd, 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 2nd, 1st, 1st, 1st, 1st, 2nd. Not sure outside of Richard Petty's 10 wins in a row streak if there has been a better run of races in Nascar history.

Source: RR's Russ Thompson

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Schaefer: It's not just for racing anymore.