Former NASCAR driver Dick Trickle died yesterday of an apparent self inflicted gun shot wound. The incident happened just after noon at a cemetery in Lincolnoton, North Carolina. Many who knew Trickle say that he had been sick for a while and also depressed.

Here is the official police press release on Dick Trickle's death

Lincolnton, NC- Retired race car driver Richard "Dick" Trickle, 71, died today from an apparent self inflicted gun shot wound. The incident occurred at 12:02 p.m. at Forest Lawn Cemetery on Highway 150 East in Boger City. The Lincoln County Communications Center received a call apparently from the victim that "there would be a dead body and it would be his ". Communications Center workers tried to place a return call to the number but did not get an answer. The first emergency units arriving on the scene located the body lying near the victim's pickup truck.

Trickle was a Lincoln County resident and had lived here since the early 1990's.

*Check out this old video of Trickle smoking while in his race car!*