Its almost chilling when Richmond says " I'll be here" talking about 1987. But when he says it, he has sort of a far away look. He likely already knew.
He found out from a doctor while in California. He knew something was wrong here as he'd been feeling bad for a couple months, but he wasn't diagnosed until it tripped into double pneumonia in January according to family.
1986 was great. The USA had not yet started the decline beginning in the 90s. Everything felt happy and optimistic. Hopefully the USA will be made great again.
1986 was a very interesting year. First we had the Challenger explosion in January and then Len Bias drug overdose basically opened up the US to drug use.
NASCAR should have more road races in the Cup series than 2 every year and also, I wish they let the West Series cars run with Cup series cars like they used to, and still let the West series run for their points
Due to the Hoosier/Goodyear battle - Goodyear went all in on radials thinking Hoosier would not be able to keep up. Hoosier actually built a competitive radial but it had some failures that caused Hoosier bad PR. Eventually - given the costs to keep developing the radial tire Hoosier pulled out. I think it is possible bias ply would still be used today if not for the entry of Hoosier into NASCAR.
Nascar needs a track layout like Riverside one of the best road course layouts ever sideways off roading thru the esess. If I was rich I would rebuild that track to exact dimensions out in the dessert. I remember Dale cutting thru the esses in the dirt still holding on to it like a video game passing and he got so close to winning there. If you build it they will come
