Richmond joined Hendrick Motorsports in 1986 , where he teamed up with veteran crew chief Harry Hyde . It took the team until the middle of the season to gel . Richmond had suffered a 64 @-@ race winless streak that was finally broken at the Van Scoy Diamond Mine 500 at Pocono in June 1986 . After two straight second @-@ place finishes at Charlotte and Riverside , Richmond started the Pocono event in third place inside the second row . That race saw a caution for rain with five laps left before the halfway point . NASCAR wanted the cars to get to the halfway point to make the race official , so the sanctioning body had the drivers slowly circle the track . It took the drivers 26 minutes to complete the laps , and the rain was so heavy that some drivers had to look out their side windows because they could not see out their windshields . Two hours later , the track had dried and the race resumed with Richmond in third . After Richmond 's car was adjusted to remove the " push " , the car was more to his liking . Because his radio did not work , he was unable to communicate with his crew chief , Hyde , and he made his final pit stop with 37 laps left . Hyde worried that Richmond had stopped a lap too early to ensure that he would have enough fuel to make it to the end . After Richmond took the lead with 30 laps left in the race , Dale Earnhardt made up three seconds on Richmond 's five @-@ second lead . With four laps to go , Buddy Arrington spun in a three @-@ car accident . The remaining laps of the race where completed slowly under caution and Richmond took the checkered flag for the victory . He had led 97 laps , including the final 30 , taking his first victory in a Rick Hendrick car .