Okay so today I decided to dig into Tim Richmond before he blew up in NASCAR. That ARCA stuff always felt kinda murky. Where even do you start? Headed straight to the racing archive websites, figured they gotta have the old results somewhere.
Typed in “Tim Richmond ARCA results” – bam, a buncha pages popped up. Started clicking through race pages from like ’79 and ’80. Man, these old pages look rough. Tiny text, weird formatting, some links are dead. Just gonna have to scroll and squint.
The Early Stuff Was Messy
Found his first ARCA race in ’79 at Michigan. Finished 16th. Okay, not great, but he was probably just figuring it out, right? Started looking race by race. Then ’80 rolls around. Seemed like he was jumping between different teams even back then. Kept seeing different car numbers and sponsors listed next to his name.
- Found results at a buncha tracks: Daytona, Pocono, Atlanta, Talladega.
- Kept seeing DNFs (Did Not Finish) pop up. Frustrating.
- His best that year was a 7th place finish at Pocono. Progress!
What struck me most? How different ARCA felt back then compared to even Richmond’s NASCAR rookie season. Lower budgets, maybe less pressure? But man, finding consistent stuff about why he was running ARCA was tough. Was it to learn big tracks? Was it ’cause he didn’t have a NASCAR ride yet? The records don’t spell it out easy.
Putting the Puzzle Together
This took longer than I thought. Had like five tabs open trying to cross-reference dates and tracks. Found one old forum post where some guy remembered seeing Richmond in an ARCA race, talked about how smooth he looked even then. That felt like gold! But verifying that story? Nearly impossible.
Eventually pieced together he ran something like 11 ARCA races over ’79 and ’80. More of a learning ground than a serious campaign. Feels like it was all about getting comfy on those superspeedways. He definitely didn’t dominate ARCA, that’s for sure. Just flashes here and there.
Final thoughts? Digging into this era is messy. Records aren’t perfect. You gotta hunt and piece things together yourself. Made me appreciate how raw Richmond was at the start. Not some instant superstar. Just a talented guy grinding it out, learning his craft in ARCA before he got his real shot.
