Chris Trickle Dies After Year in Coma
For more than a year after being shot in the head, race car driver Chris Trickle fought against all odds to come out of a coma. His family stayed by his bedside, hoping and praying for the miracle that never came.
On Wednesday, their struggle finally ended. Thirteen months after a bullet ended Trickle’s promising racing career, it finally ended his life.
Trickle, 25, died at a local hospital.
Trickle, a promising stock car driver and the nephew of Winston Cup driver Dick Trickle, was never able to fully come out of the coma caused when he was shot in the head on Feb. 9, 1997, while driving to play tennis with a friend.
His death came less than a month after Trickle made a public appearance at a fund-raiser held before the Las Vegas 400 Winston Cup race. Though not conscious, his parents brought him in a wheelchair to the fund-raiser that raised $20,297 to help pay for his care.
Trickle was a rising star on the NASCAR SouthWest tour in 1996, where he had nine top-10 finishes and was voted the tour’s most popular driver.
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