25 years later: What might have been; Richmond vs. Earnhardt

Tim Richmond was heading into the Tunnel Turn at Pocono Raceway, one of the most precise and technically challenging corners in all of NASCAR, when he keyed his radio mic. "Rick, you listening?" Richmond called out to his car owner Rick Hendrick. It was the summer of 1986 and things were finally coming together for Richmond after five prior NASCAR seasons had produced promising moments but erratic results for the racer. "Yep," said Hendrick. "Watch this," Richmond replied. As he headed out of the Tunnel Turn and into Turn 3, Richmond slowed and drifted up perilously close to the outside wall, allowing second-place driver Dale Earnhardt to pass him and take the lead. As the duo headed down the massive 3,740-foot Pocono frontstretch, the longest in NASCAR, Richmond tucked in behind Earnhardt in the draft and actually lifted his rear wheels off the ground before releasing him and then passing him to win the race, one of a series-high seven races that Richmond would win that year, all in a 17-race stretch. After