Father carries on racing legacy of his late son (cont'd)

"He'll say to me, 'Dad, when I catch these guys I can nudge them out of the way and make the pass.' I told him he had to stop doing that. I'm 62 years-old. These other parents are threatening to kick my butt.

"Funny thing about these kids today, they don't know how to lift off the throttle."

Chuck began laughing.

"But I just can't stop talking about him," he continued. "I'm telling you, you're going to see another one."

And if you can't catch young Chris on the track, well, Chuck is coming out of retirement, again, for one day. It happens every Father's Day weekend, naturally, at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway Bullring in the Chris Trickle Father's Day doubleheader.

"I had a little health scare in December but as long as I can fit in the car, I'll be racing," Chuck said. "I know I need to drop a few pounds and once you hit 60 it gets even tougher. But I know I can do it. I think there have been 18 of them, two a year for nine years, and I think I've won five of them."

Before the doubleheader last June, Chuck told the Las Vegas Review-Journal, "I'm coming out to have a little fun with the boys and to push some guys around. I won't be back, so they can't get even with me. This will be the only time I'll race this year. And I'll drive in Chris' race every year for as long as I can."

Chuck wants to keep the memory of his son Chris alive. He also wants to help others who experience the same hell he and Barbara went through.

"I think we've been able to do that a little bit," Chuck said. "I tell people you have to cry when you want to cry; you have to scream when you want to scream; when you just need to go play in the garage, go play in the garage."

"One thing that really helped me is this town. I know it's Las Vegas, but everybody here wants to help you. They are kind people."

Chuck told me he hasn't been out to the Las Vegas Motor Speedway the last few races, but he plans to be there this weekend when NASCAR returns to town.

"I'm looking forward to it," he said. "I'm just going to walk around and enjoy myself. I like being out there. I'll try to say hi to Harvick, Biffle, the Busch boys, Hornaday and some of the others. I'll take Chris out there one day. Hopefully he'll get to meet some of the guys. It'll be nice to be back."

"Chuck is just a super guy," two-time Craftsman Truck Series champion Ron Hornaday said on Tuesday. "And what happened to Chris is one of the stupidest things ever.

"I only raced against Chris maybe five or six times, but I know Chuck always made sure he had good cars, the best equipment. I remember talking to [his uncle] Dick about Chris. At Daytona or somewhere we would sit on the wall and Dick would tell us about him, how hard he was working, hoping to get the big break at a young age that Dick never really got.

"Chuck has stayed with the sport. He was living his life through Chris and he still continues to support the sport, support the kids in the area. We'll do anything we can do to help him."

When Chris was shot, former Nextel Cup Series champion Kurt Busch was tabbed to replace him in his Southwest Tour ride. When Trickle passed away in 1998, it was just days before the Tour race in Las Vegas.

"When Chris died, it was a tough time," Busch said. "We used the car as part of the funeral, the whole crew was there. It was a long week. Fortunately, we capped it off by winning the race. It was emotional. It was huge. The whole town embraced the team."

And if Chris Trickle's life had not been interrupted by such a savage event?

"Where I would have been, I don't know," Busch said in the summer of 2003. "But Chris would have made it right where he needed to go, and that's [Nextel] Cup.

Men cry. Real men admit they cry. Chuck Trickle says he still cries. But he didn't go hide in the hills, he didn't let people forget about his son, or forget the laws on the books that have helped an attempted killer or attempted killers go free.

When things were at their worst, Chuck Trickle grabbed the wheel, probably thanks to a swift kick in the butt from Barb, got back on the track and ended up with a Trickle family championship.

Chuck says he'll trim down in time for Father's Day weekend -- the Chris Trickle Father's Day doubleheader is June 16. If you're lucky enough to go, keep an eye on No. 70 ... he likes to rub a little in the turns.

The opinions expressed are solely of the writer.