PHOTO: Lee Johnson Collection
SEASON IN REVIEW
Wisconsin Rapids, Wisconsin driver Dick Trickle picked up his first LASTCAR Busch Series Grand National Division Championship in 1998, scoring two last-place finishes in twenty-three starts during a thirty-one race season. As of this writing, this was the most competitive LASTCAR Busch title chase in history as Trickle was the season’s only repeat last-place finisher.
Trickle was competing in his eighth Busch Series Grand National Division season, but he’d been racing in the Cup Series since 1970. An absolute terror on the short tracks, racking up an unknown number of wins, Trickle went full-time in the Cup Series in 1989 and finished a career-best 15th in points as Rookie of the Year. He finished 3rd at Atlanta and both Martinsville races that season, a career-best finish he’d equal twice more in his career.
By 1994, Trickle was also making a handful of Busch Series Grand National Division starts for owner Dennis Shoemaker in his #64 Dura Lube Chevrolet. Trickle and Shoemaker went full-time in 1996, and on March 29, 1997, the duo scored their first NASCAR victory at Hickory. 1998 would see new sponsor Schneider National come aboard, and hopes were high for more success that season.
Although Trickle won again in 1998, this time in the Dura-Lube 200 at Darlington on September 5, he slipped from 14th to 22nd in points, missing the race at Texas and scoring seven DNFs, all in his last ten starts of the season. The first of these DNFs was a last-place finish at Milwaukee during the DieHard 250 on July 5, where his #64 lost the engine after 27 laps. The LASTCAR Championship-deciding second finish came in the season finale at Homestead, where on November 15, he crashed just two laps into the Jiffy Lube Miami 300. Series champion Dale Earnhardt, Jr. finished next-to-last that day when his engine let go after 89 laps.
Trickle and Shoemaker parted ways in 1999, and though he went winless that year, he came home a career-best 11th in points. He completed just one more full season in 2000 before he made his 158th and final series start at Kentucky on June 16, 2001, when his #49 Rent-A-Wreck / Jay Robinson Ford finished 38th in the 43-car field of the Outback Steakhouse 300. Trickle’s 303rd and final Cup start came the next year at Dover, where on June 2, 2002, a busted oil pump left him 42nd while driving owner Dave Marcis’ #71 Continental Fire & Safety Chevrolet in the MBNA Platinum 400.
On May 16, 2013, Trickle died of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound at the Forest Lawn Cemetery in Boger City, North Carolina. He was 71.
OTHER LASTCAR HEADLINES
In 1998, Ed Berrier again tied Tommy Houston for the most last-place finishes in Busch Series Grand National Division history with 12 apiece. Berrier’s tying last-place run came at Bristol on March 28, where his #77 Lear Corporation / UAW Ford was involved in a multi-car crash after 15 laps of the Moore’s Snacks 250. Berrier and Houston would remain tied for the lead until Berrier finished last once more in 2001.
As described above, Tony Stewart finished last in 1995 LASTCAR Busch Series Grand National Division Champion Randy Porter’s final series start at Myrtle Beach on July 11. Stewart’s #44 Shell Oil / Small Soldiers Pontiac was involved in a single-car crash after he completed 67 of the race’s 250 laps. The next season, Stewart and the Joe Gibbs-owned #20 Home Depot Pontiac made their Cup Series debut in the Daytona 500, where Stewart started 2nd and kicked-off a record-breaking three-win season.
The Myrtle Beach race where Stewart finished last saw the best career finish of 4th-place finisher Lyndon Amick. Amick also scored his first last-place finish the day Dick Trickle won at Darlington on September 5 when Amick’s #35 SCANA / South Carolina Pontiac got in a three-car crash after 7 laps of the Dura-Lube 200. In 1999 and 2000, Amick would finish last four more times and become the first driver since John Linville to score back-to-back LASTCAR Busch Series Grand National Division titles.
World of Outlaws standout Dave Blaney scored his first Busch Series Grand National Division last-place finish in 1998 when his #93 Amoco Pontiac was taken out in a four-car crash after he completed 7 laps of the Carquest Auto Parts 300 on May 23. Blaney would follow Stewart to the Cup Series in 1999 for a part-time schedule before competing with Dale Earnhardt, Jr. and Matt Kenseth for Rookie of the Year in 2000.
Blaise Alexander finished last for the first time at Watkins Glen when his #20 Rescue Engine Formula Chevrolet lost the engine after he completed 8 laps of the Lysol 200. Alexander was competing in his first full season on the Busch Series Grand National Division tour. Following a difficult 2000, he moved back to the ARCA Series the next season. He won a race at Michigan, but was killed while battling for the lead of the EasyCare Vehicle Services Contracts 100 on October 4, 2001.
CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS
1st) Dick Trickle (2)
2nd) Blaise Alexander, Glen Allen, Jr., Loy Allen, Jr., Lyndon Amick, Ed Berrier, Joe Bessey, Dave Blaney, Johnny Chapman, Ted Christopher, Ricky Craven, Kelly Denton, David Green, Kevin Grubb, Shane Hall, Dale Jarrett, Jason Jarrett, Jason Keller, Jeff Krogh, Gary Laton, Tracy Leslie, Curtis Markham, Mark Martin, Kevin Prince, Andy Santerre, Dennis Setzer, Ken Schrader, Kevin Schwantz, Tony Stewart, Scot Walters (1)
