Where is ... Dick Trickle?
By Rick Houston, Special to NASCAR.COM
June 23, 2007
01:41 AM EDT
type size: + -Dick Trickle probably lost count of the races he'd run -- and won -- a long time ago.
There was a time when Trickle was constantly in motion, always headed to another green flag somewhere. He hadn't yet made a full-time move to the uppermost levels of NASCAR. Why? Because he didn't have to, that's why. He was doing far too well and making good money right where he happened to be.
"Someone once told me, 'If you'd come down here 20, 25 years ago, you'd be a Dale Earnhardt, Waltrip or whatever.' I said, 'I wouldn't give up the last 25 years for nothing.'"
Dick TrickleThere had been Cup starts for Trickle as far back as 1970, but never a complete season. It wasn't until 1989 he finally made such a jump. Mike Alexander stepped out of his Stavola Brothers Racing Buick after the Daytona 500, still recuperating from head injuries he'd suffered in the offseason Snowball Derby in Pensacola, Fla. The ride was Trickle's, and he would go on to capture the rookie of the year title.
At the age of 48.
Today, the Trickle homestead sits on 8.5 acres in North Carolina. He's got a shop in which he works and stores his "toys." If wood is needed for a fire in the winter, Trickle cuts the tree down himself. If the neighbors need help, he'll help them. Two of his children live on the property. He helped his son, Chad, finish the basement. From the sound of things, it was a major project.
Trickle's grandson recently finished up a year at college, and Grandpa made sure the trailer to haul his belongings home was hooked up and in proper working order. He does a handful of appearances here and there.
There's more.
Most, if not all, the equipment from his short-track days is still there. Trickle still races a few times a year, but very rarely does Trickle let anyone else to do the work for him. Plans call for Trickle to run the famous Slinger Nationals in July. Trickle has raced that race on the Wisconsin quarter-mile track for 26 years, and won it four times.
Just last year, he qualified second and was in the hunt for the win until an accident with five laps to go in the race took him out of contention.
This is how busy Dick Trickle is. He's as busy as he wants to be. To be quite honest, that would appear to be a gracious plenty.
"I'm not [as busy], but it seems like it," Trickle said. "I ran a full Winston Cup schedule, the full Busch schedule, except for two or three races that I couldn't possibly run, tested IROC cars, run about half a dozen short-track races and still did a fair amount of work around the acreage at home here.
"Now, I don't do any of the top three [NASCAR divisions] and somehow, I keep busy. It must be because I used to run ... and now I walk. What I really do is what I want to do, and I don't do what I don't want to. I like to feel that I've earned it. I've worked real hard in life, and had some success."
Bill Hall/Getty ImagesDick TrickleWhen it comes down to it, Trickle has taken the time to stop and smell the roses -- literally, evidently.
"My goal was to, from now on, have a stress-free life and enjoy the flowers," Trickle said. "Enjoying yourself doesn't mean you don't do nothing."
Life is much different for Trickle now than when he raced countless times at countless tracks across the country. He can afford to take a breath every now and then today, because he wouldn't -- or couldn't -- do so then. Trickle began racing in and around a town in Wisconsin called, of all things, Rudolph.
"I was fortunate, because it's a long way from Rudolph, Wis. to Daytona, I know that," Trickle said. "But I made it."
Technically, nearly 1,500 miles separate the two. For Trickle, though, the towns are separated by more than mere distance. The stories Trickle could tell about life on the road racing would be amazing to hear, and even more countless than the number of races he actually ran.
"I owned and operated my own team until I went to Winston Cup in '89, for 27, 28 ... 30 ... years," Trickle said. "I had as many as nine people working for me. We had a big operation for a short-track crew, and we raced all the way from Canada to Florida, the ones that paid the most. We didn't go for the easy ones. We went for the tough ones.
"I enjoyed it then. Now and then it was stressful because sometimes the checkbook wouldn't balance. There was no guarantee in racing. Although I had some decent sponsors, I never quite had a big enough sponsor for everything that went out."
An average year for Trickle was somewhere in the neighborhood of 100 races, and as many as 114 or so with a bare minimum of 85. He enjoyed the people, the experience of being on the road and preparing his own equipment for wherever the next race happened to be. He enjoyed driving. He enjoyed being a racer, period.
Being a racer is who he was ... and still is today.
"You don't realize how much you enjoy breathing until you don't breathe," Trickle said.
After moving to the Cup level for good in 1989, Trickle raced the circuit full time for the better part of a decade. He finished third four times over the years, his best-ever Cup result, twice at Martinsville, once at Dover and another time in Bristol. He was also a regular Busch Series competitor, and to this day, he is the oldest winner in the history of the division.
Trickle set the mark with a 1997 win at Hickory, and then extended it the next year at Darlington. He was a month shy of his 57th birthday.
He would race Cup for the Stavola Brothers, Cale Yarborough, Rahmoc, Bud Moore, Tri-Star and Junie Donlavey, among others. Trickle's last full-time season came in 1998, and after that, he ran only a few Cup races a year through 2002, when he drove his last three Cup events for fellow Wisconsin native Dave Marcis.
Most of the country never got to see Trickle as a young man, not that he slowed down much as an older one. Still, it seems interesting to ponder what might have been. For the rest of us, that is. Not for Trickle. He's content with his career, from start to finish.
"I could barely look over the fence ... I was busy," Trickle said. "I raced snowmobiles in the winter, to the point where I got a factory ride with Yamaha in the '70s. So between racing cars all summer and snowmobiles in the winter, I wasn't looking to go anywhere. I was busy.
"I was making a living. I wasn't getting rich. Someone once told me, 'If you'd come down here 20, 25 years ago, you'd be a Dale Earnhardt, Waltrip or whatever.' I said, 'I wouldn't give up the last 25 years for nothing. I've had the greatest time any man could have winning, driving and competing.'
"I had a new challenge when I went to Cup. I had a refreshing life, from 48 to 60. I was excited. I was pumped up. I enjoyed it. I got a second lease on life."
By Rick Houston, Special to NASCAR.COM
June 23, 2007
01:41 AM EDT
type size: + -Dick Trickle probably lost count of the races he'd run -- and won -- a long time ago.
There was a time when Trickle was constantly in motion, always headed to another green flag somewhere. He hadn't yet made a full-time move to the uppermost levels of NASCAR. Why? Because he didn't have to, that's why. He was doing far too well and making good money right where he happened to be.
"Someone once told me, 'If you'd come down here 20, 25 years ago, you'd be a Dale Earnhardt, Waltrip or whatever.' I said, 'I wouldn't give up the last 25 years for nothing.'"
Dick TrickleThere had been Cup starts for Trickle as far back as 1970, but never a complete season. It wasn't until 1989 he finally made such a jump. Mike Alexander stepped out of his Stavola Brothers Racing Buick after the Daytona 500, still recuperating from head injuries he'd suffered in the offseason Snowball Derby in Pensacola, Fla. The ride was Trickle's, and he would go on to capture the rookie of the year title.
At the age of 48.
Today, the Trickle homestead sits on 8.5 acres in North Carolina. He's got a shop in which he works and stores his "toys." If wood is needed for a fire in the winter, Trickle cuts the tree down himself. If the neighbors need help, he'll help them. Two of his children live on the property. He helped his son, Chad, finish the basement. From the sound of things, it was a major project.
Trickle's grandson recently finished up a year at college, and Grandpa made sure the trailer to haul his belongings home was hooked up and in proper working order. He does a handful of appearances here and there.
There's more.
Most, if not all, the equipment from his short-track days is still there. Trickle still races a few times a year, but very rarely does Trickle let anyone else to do the work for him. Plans call for Trickle to run the famous Slinger Nationals in July. Trickle has raced that race on the Wisconsin quarter-mile track for 26 years, and won it four times.
Just last year, he qualified second and was in the hunt for the win until an accident with five laps to go in the race took him out of contention.
This is how busy Dick Trickle is. He's as busy as he wants to be. To be quite honest, that would appear to be a gracious plenty.
"I'm not [as busy], but it seems like it," Trickle said. "I ran a full Winston Cup schedule, the full Busch schedule, except for two or three races that I couldn't possibly run, tested IROC cars, run about half a dozen short-track races and still did a fair amount of work around the acreage at home here.
"Now, I don't do any of the top three [NASCAR divisions] and somehow, I keep busy. It must be because I used to run ... and now I walk. What I really do is what I want to do, and I don't do what I don't want to. I like to feel that I've earned it. I've worked real hard in life, and had some success."
Bill Hall/Getty ImagesDick TrickleWhen it comes down to it, Trickle has taken the time to stop and smell the roses -- literally, evidently.
"My goal was to, from now on, have a stress-free life and enjoy the flowers," Trickle said. "Enjoying yourself doesn't mean you don't do nothing."
Life is much different for Trickle now than when he raced countless times at countless tracks across the country. He can afford to take a breath every now and then today, because he wouldn't -- or couldn't -- do so then. Trickle began racing in and around a town in Wisconsin called, of all things, Rudolph.
"I was fortunate, because it's a long way from Rudolph, Wis. to Daytona, I know that," Trickle said. "But I made it."
Technically, nearly 1,500 miles separate the two. For Trickle, though, the towns are separated by more than mere distance. The stories Trickle could tell about life on the road racing would be amazing to hear, and even more countless than the number of races he actually ran.
"I owned and operated my own team until I went to Winston Cup in '89, for 27, 28 ... 30 ... years," Trickle said. "I had as many as nine people working for me. We had a big operation for a short-track crew, and we raced all the way from Canada to Florida, the ones that paid the most. We didn't go for the easy ones. We went for the tough ones.
"I enjoyed it then. Now and then it was stressful because sometimes the checkbook wouldn't balance. There was no guarantee in racing. Although I had some decent sponsors, I never quite had a big enough sponsor for everything that went out."
An average year for Trickle was somewhere in the neighborhood of 100 races, and as many as 114 or so with a bare minimum of 85. He enjoyed the people, the experience of being on the road and preparing his own equipment for wherever the next race happened to be. He enjoyed driving. He enjoyed being a racer, period.
Being a racer is who he was ... and still is today.
"You don't realize how much you enjoy breathing until you don't breathe," Trickle said.
After moving to the Cup level for good in 1989, Trickle raced the circuit full time for the better part of a decade. He finished third four times over the years, his best-ever Cup result, twice at Martinsville, once at Dover and another time in Bristol. He was also a regular Busch Series competitor, and to this day, he is the oldest winner in the history of the division.
Trickle set the mark with a 1997 win at Hickory, and then extended it the next year at Darlington. He was a month shy of his 57th birthday.
He would race Cup for the Stavola Brothers, Cale Yarborough, Rahmoc, Bud Moore, Tri-Star and Junie Donlavey, among others. Trickle's last full-time season came in 1998, and after that, he ran only a few Cup races a year through 2002, when he drove his last three Cup events for fellow Wisconsin native Dave Marcis.
Most of the country never got to see Trickle as a young man, not that he slowed down much as an older one. Still, it seems interesting to ponder what might have been. For the rest of us, that is. Not for Trickle. He's content with his career, from start to finish.
"I could barely look over the fence ... I was busy," Trickle said. "I raced snowmobiles in the winter, to the point where I got a factory ride with Yamaha in the '70s. So between racing cars all summer and snowmobiles in the winter, I wasn't looking to go anywhere. I was busy.
"I was making a living. I wasn't getting rich. Someone once told me, 'If you'd come down here 20, 25 years ago, you'd be a Dale Earnhardt, Waltrip or whatever.' I said, 'I wouldn't give up the last 25 years for nothing. I've had the greatest time any man could have winning, driving and competing.'
"I had a new challenge when I went to Cup. I had a refreshing life, from 48 to 60. I was excited. I was pumped up. I enjoyed it. I got a second lease on life."
