Tale Of The #25

Casey Mears' decision to take on Rick Hendrick's #25 team makes him the latest entry to try and get a win out of a racecar that once was the most feared in the sport but which has not lived up to that history since the latter 1980s. It is a tale worth recalling given the seeming curse that hovers over this car.

Begun in 1986, the #25 team paired two seemingly incompatable personalities - crusty veteran crew chief Harry Hyde and flamboyant racer Tim Richmond. The pairing produced little in the first third of 1986, but following a North Wilkesboro tire test in which Richmond saw for himself how he was abusing tires as opposed to making up ground, the two began to click, and from late May of 1986 the #25 became the proverbial rocketship.

Richmond followed back-to-back seconds at Charlotte and Riverside with victory in a crash-torn Pocono 500, then won another wreckfest at Daytona. But his greatest triumph came at Pocono in the Summer 500. Racing three wide for the lead as a caution came out for Jim Sauter's first turn crash, Richmond lost control in the Tunnel Turn and spun into the path of Richard Petty. The two cars clashed side to side and Petty was eliminated while Richmond spun down the north straight. He ran backwards to pit road and lost a lap, but after a huge Tunnel Turn wreck that injured Neil Bonnett's shoulder, Richmond fought Darrell Waltrip and Cale Yarborough and unlapped himself. When fog forced NASCAR to end the race at Lap 150, Richmond rocketed through the field and on the last lap grabbed the lead; teammate Geoff Bodine fought back and the two banged together onto the frontstretch; Ricky Rudd, a lap down much of the day, came from nowhere and dove three abreast at the stripe. It took nearly three minutes to determine that Richmond had won by a raindrop.

Richmond nailed down wins at Watkins Glen, the Southern 500, and the Capital City 400 before wrecks and blown engines ruined his wildcard title hopes. He wrapped up 1986 by winning at Riverside, but after the season he fell ill. It turned into double pneumonia and there was concern whether he'd live another day.

He made it through that illness and raced a shortened 1987 season, winning at Pocono in June and then at Riverside a week later. Richmond, however, carried the secret that he had AIDS, and his sickness eventually led him to resign from the team. Bizarre behavior by Richmond eventually led to his now-infamous drug testing with NASCAR, a defamation suit against NASCAR, and an out-of-court settlement when the judge ruled that Richmond's medical records (which NASCAR had requested) were relevent to the issue. Richmond would die of AIDS in August 1989, and has been all but forgotten by the sport.

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Since then the #25 has struggled to live up to its 1986 legacy. Ken Schrader won at Talladega in 1988 in a spectacular ten-car slugfest on the final lap, a win that proved to be Harry Hyde's final win as a crew chief. Schrader next won at the 1989 National 500, but repeated breakage in 1990 ruined his season before he triumphed at Atlanta and Dover in 1991. Schrader never won again, and it unfortunately is a sign of how uninspired his career has been that one has to strain to remember that he indeed was a winner in Winston Cup.

Ricky Craven took over the #25 in 1997 but repeated injuries almost ended his career. Randy LaJoie had a noteworthy run in the #25 at Martinsville but his tenure there ended soon after a wreck in the '98 World 600 with Dale Earnhardt; following the wreck LaJoie gave a bizarre interview where he kept pointing to the #16 of Ted Musgrave as if he were involved somehow in the wreck, this despite Musgrave being over a second behind the incident.

Wally Dallenbach took over the #25 for the second half of 1998 and all of 1999, posting several top ten finishes. Jerry Nadeau came on board for 2000 and authored a dramatic win at the Dixie 500 at Atlanta. A follow-up win would not come, however, and he was released early in 2002. Joe Nemechek joined the team for the majority of 2002 and at Richmond in May 2003 pulled off the win.

From 2004 onward Brian Vickers, a protege of Rick Hendrick's son Ricky, has driven the #25 and was on the hot seat in mid-2005; he posted several strong finishes but wrecked a lot and ultimately ran out of gas in his driving, and thus now finds himself finishing out 2006 as a lame duck.

The #25 team thus has yet another new driver, as living up to the shadow of Tim Richmond continues to perplex many who remember the legacy the #25's greatest racer continues to leave.