Historical Motorsports Stories writes:

"Tim Steele and the Crash That Changed Him"

Posted by nascarman on November 5, 2018

Viewed 6823 times Tweet Between 1993 and 1997, Tim Steele won 30 ARCA races and three championships. He seemed to have everything that would make him a Cup Series star.



When Tim won the ARCA championship in 1993 as a 25 year-old rookie, it proved he had the driving skills. Harold Steele had millions of dollars to invest in his son through his successful company, H.S. Die and Engineering. In the fall of 1997, it looked like he would sign an eye-popping corporate sponsorship and run for 1998 Cup Rookie of the Year.



Talent, money, wins. What went wrong?





Steele in victory lane at Talladega in October 1997 (ISC Archives/GettyImages)



Tim Steele won his first ARCA championship as a rookie in 1993. The following year, he only made six starts, but won once. In 1995, Steele won three races but an off-track knee injury prevented him from running the full season. In 1996, Steele won 11 races and claimed his second championship, beating the runner-up by nearly 1000 points.



In 1997, Steele continued his ARCA dominance. He won 12 races, including five in a row between September and October. Tim's third championship came just as easy as the other two.





Steele's win at Charlotte in October 1997



With all that success in ARCA, Tim and his father Harold were ready to move up to the Cup Series. They had agreed to a deal with Bud Moore, the D-Day war hero who'd been in NASCAR since the early 1960s. Moore had won 63 races and two championships as an owner, but couldn't find enough money to run the 1997 season. The Steeles were coming to save Bud Moore's team with an NFL superstar who wanted to be part of NASCAR, and the big sponsors he brought.



"My dad and Brett Favre were purchasing the team from Bud Moore, and we had Nike and Sony lined up as sponsors," Steele said in 2007. With everything close to being official, Steele began testing for Moore in early November. They planned to enter the Cup season-finale race at Atlanta on November 16th and announce their future plans that weekend.



On Wednesday November 5th, Steele participated in the second day of a two-day Winston Cup test at the newly reconfigured Atlanta Motor Speedway. Driving a Ford Thunderbird with Daytona USA decals on the sides, Steele's fastest speed was 191.834 mph. For comparison purposes, that speed is nearly seven mph faster than Kyle Busch's 2018 Cup pole speed at the track.



After making adjustments in the garage, Tim went back on track. Those changes made the car much looser.



Too loose.



At nearly 200 miles per hour, Steele went into turn three and the back end of the car broke free. Steele's Thunderbird spun and hit the concrete wall with the driver's side, his helmet impacting the concrete.



Steele was unconscious when saftey crews reached his car. The roof was cut off and he was taken to Southern Regional Medical Center in Jonesboro, Georgia. Steele underwent a CAT scan, which proved negative for any detectable problems, and received treatment for a sprained left ankle.



"I really don't know what happened," Steele said after leaving the hospital later that day. "I'm not sure I want to know, but I'm OK. My ankle is a little sore, but I'm fine."



It turned out that Tim suffered a severe concussion in the wreck. And regardless of whether the effects started later or if he was just denying what had happened, Steele didn't get the proper recovery.



Despite the Wednesday crash and head injury, Tim was entered in a Winston West race at Las Vegas just three days later. So like any tough race car driver, he left the hospital and boarded an airplane for the west coast.



Steele arrived at Las Vegas and strapped into the car for first practice. It's unclear how much his head was affecting him, but other undiagnosed injuries forced Steele to withdraw from the race.



"We made two practice runs," Steele said. "When I buckled up in the driver's seat, I knew I was hurt worse than I thought. I've been sore before, but never like that. Not only was my ankle bothering me, but my chest was so tight that it was difficult to breathe right."



Steele flew back to Michigan and entered the hospital. According to him, he was diagnosed with four broken ribs and fractures to his ankle.



"As it turned out, they've deduced that the ankle is more or less crushed," Steele said. "But the biggest problem is the four broken ribs. One of them was very close to puncturing a lung. The doctors said that if I were to take another hard lick, I could be in big-time trouble. They would not clear me to race after analyzing the situation."





A November 1997 episode of RPM2Nite reporting on Steele's Crash



Steele sat out the ARCA season-finale at Atlanta and withdrew from the Cup race. He would still attempt to race in Cup in 1998, but the plans for Harold Steele and Favre to buy the team were put on hold.



In January 1998, winter testing at Daytona went on as scheduled for the Steele and Moore team. They were running, but Tim's health was suddenly getting worse. The testing on January 6th and 7th flared up his concussion symptoms. Suddenly he was experiencing dizziness and double vision.



Tim's head injury was much worse than those around him realized. In a 2012 interview, Steele said he was in a "walking coma." For the next six months after his November accident, Steele had no memory of anything. He was going through his life without his brain recording anything to his long-term memory.



On January 31st, Bud Moore made the announcement that Steele was still recovering from his concussion sustained at Atlanta. Not only would the team not enter the Daytona 500, it would be at least July before Steele would be well enough to come back.



Back home in Michigan, Tim was suffering from double vision and crippling headaches. Doctors advised him to retire. To fight his headaches, Tim's doctor prescribed him Oxycontin. The drug choice would be a terrible mistake.



In May 1998, reports weren't looking good for Steele. His post-concussion injuries were not getting much better. At the same time, it was announced that Blaise Alexander would run a limited schedule for Bud Moore until Steele recovered. It was mentioned that perhaps Alexander and Steele would be part of a two-car team for Moore in 1999. As it turned out, Alexander never drove for Moore, instead Ted Musgrave and Loy Allen attempted a few races over the summer.



On June 20th, just eight months after his crash, Steele made a miraculous comeback at Pocono. Tim started 2nd, led 75 laps, and won in his first race back. Running in six ARCA races throughout 1998, Tim won five poles and four races. Throughout all of this, he still secretly suffered from double vision.



"I started hiding pieces of tape up underneath the dash to where if I needed it, I put one over my eye," Tim revealed in a 2012 interview with RaceHub. "And then when I pitted, I'd always take it off so nobody would see it."





Steele's 1999 Truck (David Taylor/Allsport)



Steele's chance to drive in the Cup Series was gone. He raced in the Truck Series in 1999 before returing to ARCA in 2000. Over the next two years, Tim won an additional seven races. But the medication he was taking for his headaches took over his life. By 2002, Steele entered rehab to cure his addiction to Oxycontin.



"Probably the hardest thing I've ever had to do in my life is to come clean and publicly admit that I've had a drug problem," Steele said. "I'm doing that now and we're hoping that my going public with it all might help others out there."



In the years that followed, Tim entered rehab several more times to treat his addiction to other narcotics he replaced the painkillers with. By the mid-2000s Tim was sober but his racing career was coming to an end. Steele made his final ARCA start in July 2006. The following year, he announced his retirement.



Today, Steele is still involved with H.S. Die and runs the River Hills Lodge pheasant hunting camp in Platte, South Dakota. His story is mixed with sadness and resilience. Tim's career could've been much different had he not crashed at Atlanta. The plans to run in the Cup Series with Brett Favre and Nike went away in an instant. But at the same time, Tim survives. And his experience with head injuries is something that racers likely won't have to repeat again. Better awareness and better treatment options mean that Tim's story is one to learn from. A story that can help others.





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