Racing is Trickle family tradition

A famous name and a heavy right foot will get you only so far in auto racing, which probably explains why Dale Earnhardt won seven NASCAR Cup championships while Dale Earnhardt Jr. still is seeking his first. Junior is a pretty good driver, too. Just not as good as his old man.

But sometimes a famous name and a little faith can make your right foot seem heavier where the rubber meets the road.

On Oct. 4, in just his third start in a Super Late Model stock car at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway Bullring, young Chris Trickle was running second with about 10 laps to go when the red flag came out, halting the race.

When the engines were silent, Young Chris Trickle asked Dick Trickle and Uncle Trickle, which is what he calls the other Chris Trickle, to see him through. And when the engines were started again, his right foot seemed to get heavier.

Chris Trickle, who recently turned 14 years old, won that race. In only his third start.

Young Chris Trickle is the second of Chuck Trickle’s adopted sons who has shown skill behind the wheel. Young Chris is the son of Chuck’s adopted daughter, but Chuck and his wife Barbara have raised him since the day was born.

Chuck Trickle and Dick Trickle were brothers who grew up in central Wisconsin, not far from the Wisconsin Dells.

Dick Trickle was one of the best short track drivers of all-time. The National Speed Sport News said Dick won more than 1,200 short-track feature races. He was so good on the Midwest bullrings that he went on to run 303 NASCAR Cup races over 24 seasons despite not breaking in until he was 29, when it was damn near impossible for a guy from the Midwest to get a ride.

The first Chris Trickle was on the verge of joining his Uncle Dick in stock car racing’s big time when he was gunned down while driving near the Silverton in 1997. His murder has not been been solved.

The death of his son devastated Chuck Trickle, who turned to stock car racing for therapy, and to keep alive his son’s memory. He got pretty darn good at it. Chuck won the track championship at LVMS in 2003, driving his son’s car number (70) and colors.

Cole Trickle, in case you are wondering, is not related to the other Trickles. Cole Trickle was Tom Cruise’s character in “Days of Thunder.” In the movie, Cole Trickle is a talented driver from the Midwest who struggles to break into NASCAR. I think I know where the movie people got the name.

The Trickle family tree has branches going in many directions, but suffice it to say that Young Chris Trickle is showing the same promise for turning left as other racing Trickles, and at a much earlier age. He started in karts when he was 6; Chuck estimates Young Chris already has competed in around 400 races.

He probably has won about 90 of those, Chuck says. He could see over the steering wheel in about 80.

But now he stands 5-feet-9, weighs around 135, and he has the other Trickles riding shotgun, with his old man and crew back in the pits turning the wrenches. He has quit playing basketball to see if he can be as fast as the Trickles who came before.

“This is what I love to do, and I’m going to do everything I can to make it to the top,” Young Chris said on Thursday before the cars and drivers went out for hot laps.

The last time he saw his uncle — a pain-ridden Dick Trickle took his own life last year at age 71 — Dick spoke of guys who talk about making it happen, and of guys who dream about making it happen, which is easy, and of guys who make it happen, which is harder, especially when you don’t have a sponsor and are sleeping in the back of station wagons on the way to the next race.

“I want to be better than Uncle Dick,” Young Chris Trickle says.

Chuck Trickle says he wants to find Young Chris a sponsor, so he doesn’t have to sleep in station wagons.

Tonight, Young Chris will be competing against the top leadfoots on the West Coast in the annual Fall Classic Open Comp 150 at LVMS. It’s the biggest event of the Bullring season, if you don’t count the waterless boat races and fireworks on the Fourth of July, big enough over the years to have attracted Ken Schrader and selected Busch brothers.

Some of these West Coast leadfoots are pretty tough. Many have facial stubble. It pays $10,000 to win, and it’s doubtful they are just going to let the kid with peach fuzz on his cheeks drive away without a fight.

Young Chris Trickle believes the grizzled West Coast leadfoots will race him clean. “I wouldn’t do that to them, so I wouldn’t expect them to do that to me,” he said of the possibility of a driver with facial stubble taking him out should he be running near the front.

So the kid’s a little naive. He’s only 14. He’ll learn.

Las Vegas Review-Journal sports columnist Ron Kantowski can be reached at rkantowski@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0352. Follow him on Twitter: @ronkantowski