ESPN 30 for 30 Tim Richmond

[Marlboro Kearney]

ESPN 30 for 30 Tim Richmond, Tuesday night 8:00 pm

[Chris]

yeah I gotta set my DVR.. thats a MUST see

[OregonSHRFan]

Yep, my DVR is set too.

[just a fan]

Mine is set too. He is one of my favorite all time drivers.

[Chris]

OK I watched it...
Not gonna say anything until most others get a chance to watch...
Well... I will say ONE thing. 
I was disappointed the producer left out one very important things about the Daytona race and the drug test..  but I'll throw that out later

[just a fan]

I watched it too last night and I thought it was pretty well done even though most of the footage I had seen before. I am curious what you caught that was left out Chris. I was curious about how they would handle the infected girlfriend issue. I thought they kind of painted as rosey of picture there as they could.

[Chris]

Seems I remember at the time that when all the stuff went on with the Busch Clash / Daytona 500 week something happened that was never mentioned.
It was covered that Richmond had a ride for the Busch Clash but that NASCAR tried to keep him out of it by saying he failed his drug test... NASCAR also later said that they later made a mistake and if did not take any illegal drugs (also covered)

What I was disappointed that was left out was this....
While all this was going on Tim won an injuction against NASCAR to have the Daytona races (and basically the NASCAR season) stopped and no events allowed to be held until it was determined who was right.

Tim showed in court that just my missing one race it would eliminate him the ability to be champion for the season, and the court sided with Richmond.  SO NASCAR was ordered to not hold any races until the matter got settled.
I remember we were there for the races, and suddenly we didn't know if we'd get to see anything or not. (CUP wise)
SO thats where the banner "I Miss You Fans - Tim Richmond" happened.  (You can see it very briefly in a clip where they were discussing the race - can't make out what it says.. but at no other time was planes allowed to fly over the track on race day)
In any event... Even though Tim could of battled this out in court, and caused the race to be delayed or even canceled,.. he dropped his objections and let the races go on.

I read in the Daytona Paper where he stated that
"Thousands of people had spent lots of money to come to the race, took time off of work, etc etc.. and he wasn't going to deprive them and punish them for NASCAR's actions"
SO the race went on as scheduled.... that was pretty much the last you heard from that point on...  A few months later it was announced he had died.
Since he was so nice and could of REALLY bent NASCAR over and totally screwed op the whole apple cart.... then he didn't; --
I thought he should of been given credit for that and his love and respect for race fans.  I left that story should of been told.
Other than that I think it covered everything pretty well.

[just a fan]

Interesting stuff Chris. I remember the lawsuit but didn't recall the injunction. I saw the quick clip of the plane but they didn't go into it at all.

I have no doubt NASCAR knew the test was faulty. But in a sense they made the right choice because if he had been in a crash he could have infected others (even though they didn't know that but the supicions were correct). I also think Daytona might have been his suicide run because he knew by that time that his life span was very short and what a better way to go out than in a blaze of glory.