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Tim Richmond from June 7, 1955 – August 13, 1989 was an American race car driver from Ashland, Ohio. He competed in IndyCar racing before transferring to NASCAR’s Winston Cup Series (now Sprint Cup Series). Richmond was the first driver to change from open wheel racing to NASCAR stock cars, which has since become an industry trend.[4] He won the 1980 Indianapolis 500 Rookie of the Year award and had 13 victories during eight NASCAR seasons.
During the time that Richmond was hospitalized in 1989, the television broadcasting group ESPN sent a get-well-soon card to Richmond when it aired the July NASCAR race at Pocono. The television network showed highlights of Richmond’s victory at the track from three years earlier.”Tim had Hollywood good looks and the charisma of Tom Cruise,” said his friend Dr. Jerry Punch. “There he was in victory lane with the team all around him and beauty queens hanging all over him. It was important for the people at the hospital to see Tim the way he really was, when he was healthy and handsome and vital, not the way he was when he was as they saw him every day in the hospital.”
According to Punch, Richmond was hospitalized for a motorcycle accident shortly before his death. He died on August 13, 1989 at Good Samaritan Medical Center in West Palm Beach, Florida, about two years after his final NASCAR race. He was buried in Ashland, Ohio. The secrecy surrounding the circumstance of his death caused speculation for several days. On August 23, his death was revealed to be caused by AIDS, which he had acquired from an unknown woman. In the press conference, his physician Dr. David Dodson said: “There’s no way of knowing who that woman was. Tim was a celebrity with a lot of charisma, a handsome guy. He naturally attracted a lot of women.”
Dr. Jerry Punch would later claim that he had to refer more than 90 drivers and personnel to undergo HIV testing in the wake of Richmond’s death.