|| *Comments on the 1986 Summer 500:* View the most recent comment <#30> | Post a comment <#post> Tweet 1. Josh posted: 03.31.2005 - 8:09 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Awesome three-wide battle for the win and a photo finish. 2. Anonymous posted: 09.14.2007 - 9:29 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Neil Bonnett was injured in a big crash on the backstretch when his car slid into the backstretch wall and flipped onto it's side. 3. dwilk32 posted: 10.31.2007 - 9:48 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) why was the race scheduled for 200 laps and only ran 150? 4. Mark O. posted: 12.02.2007 - 12:56 am Rate this comment: (0) (3) If you knew how to read, you would know that it was because of rain/darkness. 5. SK posted: 12.24.2007 - 1:33 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Doug Heveron's final Winston Cup start. 6. RaceFanX posted: 01.05.2008 - 3:07 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) This was the only race of the 1986 season settled by a last lap pass 7. Bill Meade posted: 01.30.2008 - 4:16 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) This is the race that inspired the Days of Thunder Scene with Tom Cruise driving backwards to the pits. Tim Richmond, who had spun and blew out some tires, came down pit road in reverse. People wonder sometimes if Earnhardt would have won all 7 of his championships if Richmond was around. Or for that matter, if Jeff Gordon's career would have taken off at Hendrick if TR was around. 8. Ryan posted: 12.24.2008 - 10:15 pm Rate this comment: (1) (2) In response to Bill, yes, Dale would have won all seven if not more... Tim brought the best out in Dale... Tim was never consistent enough to win a title... 9. Ken posted: 05.08.2009 - 9:40 am Rate this comment: (1) (0) LMAO,There you go again Ryan with your delusional fanboy views.How long have you been watching Nascar?Earnhardt himself said he would have never won as many championships if Tim had lived.Richmond would have certainly won a championship,and probably multiple ones. 10. jessie hery posted: 11.25.2009 - 3:46 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) hawaiian punch ford 06 car 11. Ryan posted: 06.04.2010 - 6:12 pm Rate this comment: (1) (4) Ken posted: 05.08.09 - 9:40 am "LMAO,There you go again Ryan with your delusional fanboy views.How long have you been watching Nascar?Earnhardt himself said he would have never won as many championships if Tim had lived.Richmond would have certainly won a championship,and probably multiple ones." Delusional? Obviously YOU haven't watched Nascar very long. Earnhardt was just being modest. With Richmond you never had consistency, not enough consistency to match Earnhardt's anyways. He was basically Rusty Wallace of 1993 and 1994. And if ifs and buts were candy and nuts we would all have a Merry Christmas. Sorry Ken, don't blame Earnhardt for keeping his barn door closed, unlike Richmond. 12. RaceFanX posted: 03.06.2011 - 12:56 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) First of two Cup starts for Canadian ex-Indycar racer Cliff Hucul. It didn't last long. 13. Walleyewacker posted: 05.26.2011 - 3:30 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Ricky almost nipped Richmond at the checkered flag! 14. Dan posted: 06.10.2012 - 2:28 pm Rate this comment: (2) (0) "Sorry Ken, don't blame Earnhardt for keeping his barn door closed, unlike Richmond." Yeah, cause it's not like Earnhardt didn't have something like 4 kids with 3 different women... 15. Aaron posted: 07.28.2012 - 11:23 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Best career NSCS finish for Gary Fedewa, uncle to future nationwide series frontrunner, Tim Fedewa. 16. Biscuits in Red Bull posted: 09.06.2012 - 2:56 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) The closest Chet Fillip ever got a lead lap finish in NASCAR was also his best in 12th. 17. Jon posted: 11.25.2012 - 6:51 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Does anybody know where footage of this race can be found? I've searched all of the usual Internet outlets and found nothing, other than the highlight of Tim Richmond going into pit road in reverse 18. Flywheel posted: 03.05.2013 - 3:23 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) SETN broadcast--the first race from Pocono in '86 finally turned up on Youtube, so hopefully this one does too. Tim Richmond and Richard Petty collided right before the big wreck that involved Neil Bonnett. Richmond had to come back from a lap down to win. 19. Mike Daly posted: 05.18.2013 - 4:24 pm Rate this comment: (1) (1) The Richmond-Petty wreck - Petty had clawed into contention, Bodine-Bonnett-Richmond three wide entering the Tunnel Turn, Richmond lost it then spun into Petty's path. The Shepherd-Bonnett melee erupted on the next restart, then Richmond got his lap back on the next green flag run. Petty was livid. On the question of whether Earnhardt would have won his seven titles if Tim Richmond had lived - doubtful; Earnhardt always benefitted because threats like Tim Richmond, Davey Allison, and Ernie Irvan either got killed or got gravely injured - his first title (1980) arguably was aided because of Petty's broken neck (ironically at Pocono). 20. wrank fakefield posted: 09.06.2013 - 2:22 am Rate this comment: (1) (0) to say Richmond was too inconsistent to win a title is specious reasoning. He got one year and eight races in a car that could compete for a championship, and won 9 of those 37 races, an awesome season plus 1 race today, while literally dying of aids (for the flu-like symptoms to show up mid-86 they did means he had to be infected long before). Would he have taken some of Earnhardt or Gordon's titles? Who knows, but had he not gotten sick, there's no reason he couldn't have. Earnhardt was pretty inconsistent himself. 1981, 1982, 1983, 1984, and 1992 were not exactly years he set the world on fire. And before one of the Earnhardt revisionist-history fanboys whines about "inferior equipment" in the post-Osterlund/Bud Moore years, let me ask: Oh, like Tim Richmond with Raymond Beadle in that team's start-up years? Can't have it both ways. 21. wrank fakefield posted: 09.06.2013 - 2:31 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Mike Daly: Don't forget Alan Kulwicki. 22. Walleyewhacker posted: 02.16.2014 - 11:44 am Rate this comment: (2) (2) Great points Mike about Earnhardt benefitting from the misfortunes of Petty in 1980, and Richmond, Davey Allison and Ernie Irvan later on from 1987-1994. Also Alan Kulwicki that wrank fakefield mentioned. Let's not forget also that Earnhardt wouldn't have won the Cup in 1990 either had Mark Martin not been unfairly docked those points at Richmond. His average finshes in his Cup championships weren't all that impressive other than his great year of 1987. Both Elliott and second place Rusty Wallace's averages finshes in 1988 were better than all of Earnhardts other 6 chanmpionships. There are very few drivers during the 1980's and 1990's that I didn't care for. Earnhardt was by far at the top of my short list because he was an onery cuss and a terrible interview and sore loser when things didn't go his way. He was a dirty driver that couldn't take it when someone gave it back to him. It's why he was only voted the Most Popular Driver of the Year just once despite 76 wins and multiple Cups. The following year after he won his only Most Popular Driver award was 1999, and his blatant spin of Terry Labonte at Bristol that August guaranteed that he would never win it that year or in 2000. 23. Anonymous posted: 05.25.2014 - 6:08 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Dale didn't win the MPD award in 1998, he won it in 2001 and even then Bill Elliott had to remove himself from the ballot for it to happen. 24. rob posted: 06.10.2015 - 7:00 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Footage of this race is on the NASCAR.com feature "Throwback Thursday". 25. srt posted: 11.14.2015 - 10:28 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Bonnett's injuries were a cracked rib and a broken collarbone 26. RaceFanX posted: 03.15.2016 - 6:49 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) New England racer Jack Ely records his best Cup finish in 20th. He ran both Pocono races in 1986 and only ran three Cup races total. 27. SMIFF TV posted: 05.03.2017 - 8:07 am Rate this comment: (2) (0) The 45 minute SETN broadcast of this race will be up on my channel within the next couple of hours, if anybody's interested... 28. Sandy posted: 04.10.2020 - 7:54 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Best career cup series Qualifying start for Bobby Gerhart in 24th place 29. NewGuyOnTheBlock posted: 06.17.2020 - 2:49 pm Rate this comment: (2) (0) SETN broadcast this race. Mike Joy and Jerry Punch were in the booth with Dick Berggren in the pits. Rusty Wallace carried the lone onboard camera. For the second cup race in a row, Tim Richmond came from a lap down to win in a thrilling three-wide finish ahead of Ricky Rudd and Geoff Bodine. The win, Richmond's third in four races, came in a race that was shortened by 50 laps due to inclement weather and darkness. Harry Gant won his first pole of the season, breaking the track record in the process. Gant's pole was an emotional one: Just a few weeks earlier, he had suffered a bruised heart in the spring Pocono race following a violent crash with Buddy Arrington. Come race day, heavy fog rolled into the Poconos, delaying the start of the race by 15 minutes. The fog would settle around the track for the rest of the day, impacting visibility for the spotters. NASCAR would end up shortening the race to just 150 laps due to this fog. Harry Gant led the opening lap before the Hendrick Motorsports teammates of Geoff Bodine and Tim Richmond shot past. The Hendrick boys had dominated the spring race here and were looking to pick up where they had left off. Bodine would pull away slightly from his teammate as he broke the track record several times during the opening laps. The day's first caution came out on lap 21 when Joe Ruttman got loose in turn 2 and slapped the boilerplate wall, destroying his Quaker State Buick. Bodine led the field back to green, while Richmond restarted way down the running order after staying out on track to lead a lap under caution. It wouldn't take long for Richmond to get back into the battle for the lead, as he quickly caught Bodine and second-place runner Darrell Waltrip. Waltrip, Bodine, and Richmond would shuffle the lead between themselves for the next 20 laps before a round of green-flag pitstops broke out. Waltrip, hoping to pick up some crucial bonus points in the title fight with Dale Earnhardt, stayed out as long as he could before pitting, giving Richmond the lead as the cycle ended. Richmond pulled away from the field over the next 20 laps before another green-flag pitstop cycle began. Richmond was the first of the leaders to pit, with Bodine inheriting the top spot. Doug Heveron's spin on lap 94 would bring out the day's second caution, bringing the field to pit road and disrupting Richmond's strategy. Harry Gant would take over the lead and brought the field back to green with Bodine, Rusty Wallace, and Morgan Shepherd chasing him down. Richmond, meanwhile, was stuck further back in traffic, though he quickly closed on the leaders. Bill Elliott would bring out another caution when his engine erupted on the frontstretch on lap 104. On the restart, Richmond got the jump on Gant and again began to pull away from the pack. But a spin by modified driver Jerry Cranmer just a few laps later erased Richmond's advantage yet again. While the majority of the field pitted for fuel and tires, Neil Bonnett opted to stay out on track, leading the field back to green. During this sequence, the fog surrounding Pocono began to thicken. Visibility greatly decreased on track, which may explain the utter chaos that was about the occur. Bonnett led away on the restart, but the Hendrick boys quickly caught him for the top spot, joined by Richard Petty in fourth. On lap 122, as the leaders headed down the Long Pond Straight, Jim Sauter spun the #75 in turn one, bringing out another caution. Bodine was in the process of passing Bonnett for the lead when this yellow came out, while Richmond was trying to pass both Bodine and Bonnett by going three-wide into turn two. The move didn't work: Richmond got loose, slid up into Bodine, then spun sideways right into the path of Richard Petty. Petty slammed into the side of the #25, then careened down into the dirk embankment in the infield, destroying the front of his Pontiac. Meanwhile, Richmond drove IN REVERSE down the backstretch towards turn three, finally spinning the car around as he entered the pits. The #25 wasn't horribly damaged, but it did have some major dents in the side. Richmond would lose a lap in the pits as his team repaired the damage, his chances for a season sweep at Pocono appearing to have vanished. Darrell Waltrip would take over the top spot under caution, and led the field back to green. Morgan Shepherd and Ricky Rudd, who both had fallen a lap down, tried to go underneath Waltrip entering turn one to get back on the lead lap. Rudd succeeded, but Shepherd was forced to let off the throttle and wait until turn two. However, as the pack moved through the tunnel turn, Shepherd got loose under Waltrip and began to spin. He clipped the front end of Dale Earnhardt's Chevy, then shot back up across the racetrack, right into the path of Harry Gant. Both vehicles were destroyed in the crash, but neither driver was hurt. As the field scrambled to avoid the accident, Benny Parsons spun into the path of Neil Bonnett and Bobby Hillin Jr., collecting both. All three cars spun down into the infield grass, with Bonnett slamming into the interior barrier, flipping his car onto its side. Bonnett would suffer a broken collarbone and cracked ribs in the accident. After a lengthy caution period, the race resumed under green with Darrell Waltrip in the lead. The drivers had been notified at this point that the race would only go to 150 laps due to the increasing darkness due to the fog. Tim Richmond managed to get around Waltrip on the restart, getting his lap back. Dale Earnhardt, who was suffered slight damage in the earlier pileup, suddenly lost control in turn two and slapped the wall, bringing out yet another caution. Geoff Bodine would win the race back to the caution, while Richmond cycled around to the tail end of the lead lap. By now, the fog was so bad that drivers were having trouble seeing, which may have contributed to Dale Earnhardt crashing yet again on the restart. After a quick yellow, Bodine led the field back to green with 4 laps left. Bobby Allison sat in second, while Ricky Rudd had recovered from losing a lap earlier to run third. With three laps to go, Bodine had stretched his advantage, while Rudd moved past Allison into second. Richmond had now battled up into the top 5, quickly passing both Allison and Rudd into second. With a clear track ahead of him, Richmond began to close in on Bodine, catching the #5 with two laps to go. Richmond tried for the lead going into turn one, but Bodine slammed the door on him. Richmond got a run out of turn two but was unable to make a move on the outside. As the leaders came to the white flag, Richmond had managed to pull around the inside of Bodine and was die-by-side with his teammate. Richmond made the move going into turn one, sliding in front of Bodine. Geoff would not give up, as he drafted up behind Richmond down the backstretch, then pulled alongside through turn two. The two teammates came down towards turn three side-by-side with Bodine getting a slight advantage. As the leaders came out of turn three, suddenly Ricky Rudd came out of nowhere, shooting to the inside and pulling alongside the leaders. The three came across the stripe nearly in a three-wide dead heat. After reviewing the footage, NASCAR would give the victory to Tim Richmond by 0.05 second. 30. Ryan posted: 10.03.2020 - 7:44 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) @14 "Yeah, cause it's not like Earnhardt didn't have something like 4 kids with 3 different women..." At least he married them. @19 "On the question of whether Earnhardt would have won his seven titles if Tim Richmond had lived - doubtful; Earnhardt always benefitted because threats like Tim Richmond, Davey Allison, and Ernie Irvan either got killed or got gravely injured - his first title (1980) arguably was aided because of Petty's broken neck (ironically at Pocono)." Well, we can go both ways with that. Earnhardt could have won the championship in '96 if not for Irvan taking him and Marlin out at Talladega. He had bad injuries and didn't do no where near as good after that like had done before that. Earnhardt was AHEAD of Petty in the points when Petty had his crash; Earnhardt had BEATEN Richmond already when Richmond got AIDS; Earnhardt was AHEAD of Kulwicki and Allison in the points when they had their tragic crashes; Earnhardt was AHEAD of Irvan when Irvan had his bad crash at Michigan. @20 "Earnhardt was pretty inconsistent himself. 1981, 1982, 1983, 1984, and 1992 were not exactly years he set the world on fire. Those weren't his championship years though. You're wrong about 1984, Earnhardt led the standings for five races during the late Summer. @22 "Let's not forget also that Earnhardt wouldn't have won the Cup in 1990 either had Mark Martin not been unfairly docked those points at Richmond. His average finshes in his Cup championships weren't all that impressive other than his great year of 1987. Both Elliott and second place Rusty Wallace's averages finshes in 1988 were better than all of Earnhardts other 6 chanmpionships. " Unfairly? He got docked because his part wasn't approved. It was illegal to be on his car. You forget that Earnhardt had a flat tire on the last lap of the Daytona 500 that cost him the win and 20 points. Also, the last race at Atlanta Dale could have won that race if he really wanted to push the issue, he was more concerned with making sure he stayed in front of Mark and kind of took a conservative approach until he had to, though. All of Earnhardt's avg. finishes when he won the Cup was 8.6 or better. Considering he did it seven times is impressive and in 1995 he had the better avg. finish out of everyone. What got him was that Jeff Gordon recorded more bonus points throughout the year. And the only problem with Elliott and Wallace is that they only did it once or twice, not avg. a top ten finish eleven times like Dale did. And that's without Dale's 10.3 finish in 1989 when he had his near miss of the championship. The one that got away. "He was a dirty driver that couldn't take it when someone gave it back to him." Actually he enjoyed it. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ *Post a comment:* Your comment may not appear immediately - all comments must be approved by the moderator. Name: Comment: