Former NASCAR driver Richard “Dick” Trickle is dead from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound.
The 71-year-old former race car driver shot himself at Forest Lawn Cemetery in Lincoln County in North Carolina.
According to officials, they received a phone call prior to the shooting from a man identifying himself as Trickle. The caller said there would be a dead body at the cemetery and it would be his.
When emergency personnel arrived at the scene, they found Trickle’s body near his pickup truck. According to authorities, a suicide note was also found at the scene.
Trickle was NASCAR’s rookie of the year in 1998, at age 48. His death occurred as NASCAR’s elite racers hit Charlotte, NC for the Sprint All-Star Race at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
photo via the Charlotte Observer