RIP Dick Trickle

Former NASCAR driver/punchline dead of self-inflicted gunshot wound at age 71. ESPN the Magazine's Ryan McGee posted the police press release on his Facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=610446588967560&id=116469968365227

 

Just saw that he died; hadn't seen it was suicide. All of my snark just vanished.

 

Wow... Awful... RIP...

 

Damn.

 

Very sorry to hear this. Remember him from his days dominating in the Midwest in the 70s and then saw him in the NASCAR garage area in the 90s. He was a racer.

RIP.

 

Holy crap. RIP.

 

Wonder if head trauma contributed to this.

 

Jesus.

 

Oh no...

 

The cemetery was where his granddaughter -- who died in an auto accident in 2001 at age 16 -- was buried ... according to former Charlotte Observer motorsports writer Tom Higgins, Dick never got over that ...

 

My wife is devastated by this. He was he favorite racer by far.
Her stepdad told me when he raced near her hometown, she would only watch for him. When his race was done, or he crashed, she proclaimed it was time to go home and would make a scene until they left the track.

RIP Mr. Trickle.

 

I don't remember what year this was, but it was after the rise of the motor coach parking lots at race tracks. Trickle wasn't high enough on the totem pole to get inside the gate at Bristol, so he was parked (with a few other drivers) on the edge of the media parking lot. After the race there were several of us who joined him drinking beer into the night after the race waiting for traffic to die down. Dick himself provided and cooked the burgers.