ESPN sent a get @-@ well @-@ soon card to Richmond when it aired the July 1989 NASCAR race at Pocono . The television network showed highlights of Richmond 's victory at the track from 1986 . " 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 as they saw him every day in the hospital . "