June 21, 1987: End of an era

Today is the anniversary of Tim Richmond's final Cup win. Fittingly, he won a track on which he excelled and others struggled mightily - Riverside.

And as I always strive to do, I'll fit in a Petty angle to the story. While still recovering from rib injuries suffered at Dover a couple of weeks earlier, the King turned his car over on lap 1 to Joe Ruttman. Joe did a fantastic job racing the car through the field to get the 43 a 6th place finish.

In meeting with Joe earlier this year, he said one of the thrills he expected was to wear a sho-nuff Richard Petty STP uniform. Instead, his practice and race uniforms were hand-me-downs from a few years earlier when Kyle still raced for PE / STP. The story got a big laugh from me.

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Schaefer: It's not just for racing anymore.
updated by @tmc-chase: 12/05/16 04:00:58PM

Tim was a talent behind the wheel and a very nice fellow in his dealings with me. I've told before how he drove a second George Jefferson/Derrike Cope 7-Eleven car for me in a Winston West race at Phoenix for no pay to help us promote the race.

That was the only Winston West race Tim ever ran. Unfortunately for us, he blew the engine on lap 7 of that 1984 season ender and finished dead last.

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"Any Day is Good for Stock Car Racing"

Tim's last race at MIS a month later (August 1987) was the best MIS race I've ever watched. Bill Elliott, Davey Allison and Alan Kulwicki (Fords), Richard Petty and Rusty Wallace (Pontiacs), Bobby Allison and Morgan Shephard (Buicks) and Ironhead (#3 Chevy) were nose-to-tail going for the win with less than 10 laps to go. The ESPN announcers were going crazywith the postion swappings. Rusty was going to win it but he brushed the wall with three laps to go. Dale and then Bill passed Rusty. Bill passed Dale and won. I pull out my VHS tape and watch it once a year. The cars looked a lot better back then as well. Bill was so great at MIS in the 1980's, almost at great as Davd Pearson was at MIS from 1969-78 (9 wins).