Countdown: Ohio

The first state admitted to the Union under the Northwest Ordinance, Ohio means "good river," which means the Ohio River is redundant.

Eight Ohioans -- William Henry Harrison, Ulysses S. Grant, Rutherford B. Hayes, James Garfield, Bejamin Harrison, William McKinley, Howard Taft and Warren G. Harding -- have all held our country's highest office. Half of them died in office, two at the hand of assassin's bullets.

TAKE THE CHALLENGE Give the right side of your brain the day off as you juggle a field of NASCAR drivers while staying under a salary cap.  •   To play,  click here For Reese's, it's all about the Cup. Pick the best drivers from each group and walk away with the top prize. Build your point total week after week! Earn great prizes! Are you ready to make the hard choices?  •   To play, click here Streak to the Finish challenges you to guess a top-10 driver in next week's NASCAR race.  •   To play, click here Who do you want to make a superstar? The Superstar Fantasy Cap Challenge gives you that power. Just don't use the same driver twice this year.  •   To play,  click here Play the Ultimate Fantasy League. Draft, trade, add, and drop drivers throughout the season. Dominate your opponents with the best team of drivers you can assemble.  •   To play,  click here

In addition to its presidents, the Buckeye State takes pride in its pilots. Dayton bicycle mechanics Orville and Wilbur Wright learned to fly. Columbus' Eddie Rickenbacker was a World War I ace -- and owned the Indianapolis Motor Speedway at one point. Cambridge's John Glenn was the first American to orbit the Earth. Wapakoneta's Neil Armstrong was the first man to walk on the moon.

In addition to U.S. Grant, other Ohio-born generals include William T. Sherman and George A. Custer. It's also the birthplace of Doris Day, Ruby Dee, Clark Gable, Dean Martin, Paul Newman and Steven Spielberg.

The lightbulb came on for Milan's Thomas Edison, while Cincinnati's Ted Turner turned to television.

Ohio's connection to NASCAR goes back to the "Poor Man's 500" and an Ashland native whose star burned out way too early.

Best behind the wheel

• Tim Richmond, Ashland

Tim Richmond's first racing experience ended with his first injury, when he crashed his go-kart into a barn door and caused him to bite his tongue deep enough to require stitches, according to a speech his sister Sandy gave when Tim was inducted into the Ashland County Sports Hall of Fame in 1996.

After showing quarterhorses, learning to fly airplanes and competing in track and football in high school, the racing bug bit Richmond when he attended a race with his father at Lakeville, where he talked Dave Shoemaker into allowing him to take Shoemaker's Sprint car for a lap.

In 1976, Richmond won the Sandusky track championship while driving Super Modifieds and Sprint cars. A year later, he won the Ohio State Champion Super Modified Series.

Inside the Numbers Tim Richmond's NASCAR career Category Cup Busch Years 8 4 Starts 185 10 Wins 13 2 Top-5 42 4 Top-10 78 4 Poles 14 6 Avg. Start 12.5 15.2 Avg. Finish 4.2 15.9

Named USAC Sprint-car rookie of the year in 1978, Richmond landed a ride in the Indianapolis 500 two years later and finished ninth. His Penske-Cosworth ran out of gas late in the race -- and Richmond hitched a ride back to the pits on winner Johnny Rutherford's sidepods.

That performance was impressive enough to earn Richmond Indy 500 rookie of the year honors -- and it caught the eye of Pocono Raceway president Dr. Joseph Mattioli, who asked Richmond to race at his track later that season. In a D.K. Ulrich-owned Chevrolet, Richmond finished 12th and went on to run four more races.

Richmond found himself drawn to NASCAR by 1981, taking two race weekends off to run the Indianapolis 500, where he struggled. After crashing several times during the month of May, he bought a car from A.J. Foyt, started last and finished 14th. He had better luck in stock cars that year, posting six top-10s.

Richmond's first full-time ride came in 1982, when he won both Riverside races for J.D. Stacy. He posted two more victories during the next two seasons -- at Pocono and North Wilkesboro -- for Raymond Beadle before landing a job with Hendrick Motorsports.

ARCHIVE •   Countdown to Daytona

After running no better than fifth in his first 10 races, Richmond was almost unbeatable from that point on. He won seven times -- including both Pocono races and the Southern 500 -- and finished second on four other occasions to wind up third in the final standings behind Dale Earnhardt and Darrell Waltrip.

Fighting the effects of acquired immune deficiency syndrome by the 1987 season, Richmond made only eight starts -- but won twice, at Pocono and Riverside.

He died on Aug. 13, 1989 at age 34. Richmond was inducted into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame in 2002.

	Dave Blaney will drive the No. 22 for Bill Davis Racing in 2006.
	Inside the Numbers Dave Blaney's NASCAR career Category Cup Busch Truck Years 8 8 1 Starts 199 86 1 Wins 0 0 0 Top-5 1 7 0 Top-10 19 22 1 Avg. Start 23.8 16.8 5.0 Avg. Finish 24.6 20.2 6.0

Other noteworthy drivers from Ohio

• John Anderson, Massilon: Fifth at Michigan in 1979 was his best effort in 32 starts

• Dave Blaney, Hartford: A total of 199 starts, he scored top-10s at Atlanta and Homestead in 2005

• Rodney Combs, Cincinnati: Made 55 starts between 1982 and 1990, with a ninth at Atlanta in 1982

• Gene Comstock, Chesapeake: 29 appearances included a fourth at Weaverville in 1952

• Ray Duhigg, Toledo: Cracked the top-five 10 times in the '50s

• Jimmy Florian, Cleveland: Scored his only NASCAR victory at Dayton in 1950

• Butch Hartman, Zanesville: Short-track legend made 20 starts between 1966 and 1979, including a fifth at Charlotte in 1972

• Mike Klapak, Warren: Three top-10s in 12 races from 1950-53

• Nelson Stacy, Cincinnati: His four victories include the 1961 Southern 500

We wish ...

All-time hit king Pete Rose had become a NASCAR driver. The Cincinnati native nicknamed "Charlie Hustle" had 200 or more hits in a season 10 times on his way to 4,256 in his 24-year career. Plus, he'd have to be the odds-on favorite at Las Vegas.

TRACK PAGE •   Mansfield Motorsports Speedway

Keeping it on track

• Mansfield Motorsports Speedway

Mansfield Raceway, a three-eighths-mile dirt oval, opened in the spring of 1959 and was stretched to a half-mile in 1972. However, the track was in danger of being demolished when a group of Cleveland investors purchased it at auction in 1998.

The track was paved in time for the 1999 season and re-opened as Mansfield Motorsports Speedway. The track was added to the Craftsman Truck Series schedule in 2004, with Jack Sprague winning from the pole in a race that saw 13 caution flags and 94 caution laps.

Bobby Hamilton started 26th and survived 13 more caution flags to win the 2005 edition.

Gone but not forgotten

• Canfield Fairgrounds, Canfield

Before Bruton Smith devised a 600-mile test of endurance on the same race weekend as the Indianapolis 500 when the Charlotte Motor Speedway opened for business in 1960, this dirt half-mile ran three Memorial Day races known as the "Poor Man's 500."

In 1950, Bill Rexford won for the only time that season on his way to the NASCAR championship. He beat Glenn Dunnaway by two laps to take home the $1,400 winner's share. Johnnie Parsons' check for winning the Indy 500 that day was $57,459.

Marshall Teague and Herb Thomas would go on to win the next two Poor Man's 500s before the race date was moved to Raleigh for 1953. The Canfield track closed in 1973.

Other tracks which have hosted NASCAR races

• Bainbridge Fairgrounds, Bainbridge: Fonty Flock won from the pole on the half-mile horse track

• Dayton Speedway, Dayton: Paved half-mile hosted six races, the last two won by Dick Rathmann

• Fort Miami Speedway, Toledo: Tim Flock won both races at the dirt half-mile

Goodyear is the official tire of NASCAR. Credit: Jonathan Ferrey/Getty Images

• Powell Motor Speedway, Columbus: Herb Thomas beat Dick Rathmann by three car-lengths in 1953

A word from our sponsor

• Goodyear Tire and Rubber, Akron

Goodyear, the world's largest tire company, manufactures tires and engineers rubber products and chemicals in more than 90 facilities in 28 countries. It has marketing operations in almost every country around the world. Goodyear employs about 75,000 people worldwide.

In addition, Old Spice is produced by Cincinnati's Procter and Gamble and Lincoln Electric's headquarters are in Cleveland.