A friend of Richmond 's father co @-@ owned a sprint car and Richmond joined the team as a crew member for Dave Shoemaker . In 1976 , 21 @-@ year @-@ old Richmond took the car onto Lakeville Speedway at Lakeville , Ohio for some practice laps . " Somebody put a stopwatch on me , " Richmond said . " I was running laps faster than Dave had been . It was the first time I had ever driven a race car . " Richmond and his father found a red , white and blue @-@ colored No. 98 car in Pennsylvania , which was the same number and paint scheme that Richmond used on model cars as a child . In his first competition at the track , officials placed Richmond in the slowest heat . He passed several cars before spinning out and breaking an axle . Although he made several attempts to get the car pointed in the right direction , the broken axle prevented the car from driving straight . After being towed to the pits , he parked the car for the rest of the event . Later that season , they towed the car to Eldora Speedway , only to have Richmond crash the car again . In response , Richmond 's father fired him as the driver . The next season , Al Richmond bought a SuperModified better suited to his son 's driving style . In 1977 Tim Richmond became both Sandusky Speedway 's Rookie of the Year and the SuperModified class track champion .