Former NASCAR driver Dick Trickle was found dead of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head on Thursday, Lincoln County (N.C.) police said. The discovery of Trickle's body near the Forest Lawn Cemetery came after the Lincoln County Communications Center had received a call earlier in the day from someone — whom they believe was Trickle — that "there would be a dead body and it would be his.“ After the center returned the call and received no answer, emergency units arrived on the scene and found Trickle's body next to his truck.

Trickle retired in 2002 after starting 303 races during his 24 years in NASCAR. The combination of Trickle's first name and surname became comedy fodder for Keith Olbermann and Dan Patrick on ESPN's SportsCenter in the mid-1990s. Olbermann and Patrick would reveal where Trickle finished in each week's Cup Series race regardless of its relevance to the event just to cheekily say his name. Trickle was 71.

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