We don't know if we'd call former NASCAR driver Dick Trickle a legend, but he was well known within the sport.And at the age of 71, Trickle took his own life Thursday afternoon in Lincoln County, North Carolina, dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Trickle never won a NASCAR Sprint Cup race and arguably he would be considered the forerunner of what are now considered "Field Fillers" or what we call "Racing Jobbers". He did win the sports "Rookie of the Year" title in 1989.
That's where our path briefly crossed Trickle's when we were early in our career as a Producer/Photographer. We did a 1989 feature story on him while at the Martinsville Speedway and he was gracious, funny, self-depracating and very aware of his place in the sport.
And no, he was not--at least that anyone will admit...the insipiration for the Cole Trickle character in the movie "Days of Thunder".
OSG Sports passes its condolences to the Trickle family and the sport of NASCAR, one of the good guys is now gone.
Here's some video of Trickle from what now is considered a bygone era, 1990, with Trickle lighting up a cigarette while in the middle of a race:
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