Americans tend to look back on a certain time in our history — sometimes called the Greed Decade — with rose-tinted glasses. Although a famously good time, the 1980s weren’t always as idyllic as we sometimes prefer to remember.

One such case was personified by Tim Richmond, who enjoyed considerable success during his eight years competing in the NASCAR Winston Cup Series, winning 13 races and finishing among the top 10 another 78 times.

Unfortunately indulging in the excesses of achievement led to his demise, whereby AIDS cut his promising life short in 1989 at age 34.

So raucous were his exploits that Cole Trickle, the main character in Days of Thunder (played by Tom Cruise, who also co-wrote the film) was based on Richmond himself. The movie, a box office success, also underscored his cantankerous relationship with crew chief Harry Hyde (played by Robert Duvall) and team owner Rick Hendrick (played by Randy Quaid).

Ironically the site of Richmond’s first NASCAR win in 1982 was also the location of his last: the 1987 Budweiser 400 at Riverside International Raceway in Moreno Valley, California — a track that claimed the lives of 19 drivers throughout its 31-year existence.

Similarly heavyweight boxing champion Tommy Morrison [48-3-1, 42 KO] lived a comparably fast life and suffered the same fate, also succumbing to complications from AIDS in 2013. He was 44. Miraculously Earvin “Magic” Johnson, one of my first sports heroes, remains fit as a fiddle some 30 years after his HIV diagnosis. Go figure.

Richmond was named one of the 50 Greatest NASCAR Drivers of All Time in 1998. He was posthumously inducted into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame in 2002. Yet his memory in equal parts as both a legend and a cautionary tale, which is indicative of the era he personified, still looms largest of all.