Tim Steele (March 1, 1968 – January 7, 2024) was an Americanstock car racing driver.^[1] He won threeARCA Re/Max Series national championships and raced inNASCAR's highest three series.^[2] He was inducted in theMichigan Motor Sports Hall of Fame in 2009.^[2]

Steele was born inCoopersville, Michigan on March 1, 1968, and began racing as a 5-year-old in motorcycleice racing.^[2] He finished second in Michigan's 125cc AMAmotocross division.^[2] In 1984, the 16-year-old won the NAMRA Champ Cars division championship and was the division's Rookie of the Year; he also raced in International Jet Ski Racing events that season.^[2] He continued to move up the ladder and began racinglate models atBerlin Raceway.^[2] He began racing on regional touring series, winning in theAmerican Speed Association in 1990 and theNASCAR All Pro Series in 1992.^[2]

Steele died on January 7, 2024 at age 55 due to complications following a stroke.^[3][4]

Steele started out in the 1993 Season driving for Harold Steele's HS Die Team.^[5] It was a very successful year. He went on to win the Championship that year and earned the Rookie of the Year award.^[2][6] He went on to continue winning races, also winning the championship in 1996 and 1997. Steele won twelve times in 1997, the most wins in the series since 1973.^[2]

In November 1997, he was involved in a serious accident while testing atAtlanta Motor Speedway. At the time he was planning on moving up to theWinston Cup Series to try and contend for rookie of the year.^[6] He was ten days away from signing up with a team to be owned by his father Harold andGreen Bay Packers QuarterbackBrett Favre, who were planning to purchaseBud Moore Engineering.^[5] At the time, he was diagnosed with a broken left ankle and cracked ribs.^[7] However, the accident also caused brain injuries, and doctors told him he could not handle another trauma.^[8] Much of 1998 he spent going from doctor to doctor to see if a comeback was possible.^[6] He battled a dependency on the prescription drugOxycontin which he was taking for headaches.^[9] Finally in June 1998, Steele made his comeback to the ARCA series atPocono; he won the race and went on to race in five more races that year winning three of them.^[10] In 1999, Steele only competed in one race atTalladega finishing 34th after a crash.^[11]

In2000, Steele made a full-time comeback to the series. He won three races and accumulated fourteen top-ten finishes and finished third in the final points standings.^[12] In 2001, Steele won four races and finished ninth in the final points standings.^[13]

The next five years were not as successful as he only competed in sixteen races and earned only three top-five finishes.^[1] In 2007, after alate model crash atToledo Speedway, Steele decided it was time to stop racing.^[6]

Between 1993 and 2006, Steele had attempted 146 races, winning 41, which equates to victories in 28% of all the races he entered.^[8] Steele's 24 victories is ARCA's all-timeSuperspeedway winner, including nine at Pocono Raceway. He recorded 86 top-five finishes, 101 top-tens and led 5,423 laps.^[8] That means that Steele led laps in 64% of every race he entered.^[8] He also won 31 career pole awards.^[5] He was the first ARCA driver to make overUS$1,000,000 in his career, surpassingBobby Bowsher's previous record ofUS$952,535 in 1998.^[14]

In 1994, Steele competed in fiveWinston Cup Series races in a car owned byBobby Allison only managing a best finish of 33rd at Pocono.^[1] He attempted to qualify for the inaugural Brickyard 400 but failed.^[1]

In 1993, he competed in twoBusch Grand National Series races atMichigan andRichmond for NASCAR driverDavey Allison's team. Both races ended with Did Not Finishes (DNFs). In 1994, Steele competed in one race at Michigan for his father's team; it ended in another DNF. In 1997, he competed in seven races forJames Finch. This time he managed to accumulate two top tens and one top five finish and an overall average finish of 19.9. This would be the last year he would compete in the series.^[1]

In 1999, Steele competed in 13Craftsman Truck Series races in a truck once again owned by his father. He accumulated one top-ten finish and led 45 laps. He averaged a nineteenth place finish and finished 25th overall in the standings.^[1]

In 1996 and 1998, Steele competed in twoWinston West Series races atLas Vegas Motor Speedway, scoring a top-five and leading fifteen laps.^[1]

(key) (Bold – Pole position awarded by qualifying time.Italics – Pole position earned by points standings or practice time. * – Most laps led.)

(key) (Bold – Pole position awarded by qualifying time.Italics – Pole position earned by points standings or practice time. * – Most laps led.)

• Tim Steele driver statistics at Racing-Reference

• 1968 births
• 2024 deaths
• 20th-century American sportsmen
• 21st-century American sportsmen
• American Speed Association drivers
• ARCA Menards Series drivers
• NASCAR drivers
• Racing drivers from Michigan
• Sportspeople from Ottawa County, Michigan

• Articles with short description
• Short description matches Wikidata
• Use mdy dates from January 2024
• Short description is different from Wikidata