Cole Trickle

**Cole Trickle** is an American former stock car and open wheel racer. He is the 1990 and 1993 Winston Cup Series Champion. He last competed in the #51 Chevrolet full-time in the 2000 NASCAR Winston Cup Series for Rowdy Burns Racing and last competed part-time in the #99 for Roush Racing in the 2004 season.

## Career

### IndyCar

In 2006, 44 year old Cole Trickle finally entered the Indianapolis 500, and drove the #95 for Panther Racing. Trickle qualified 8th for the race. By lap 44, Trickle had got to 4th position. On lap 59, Trickle passed Dan Wheldon for the lead and stayed there until lap 110 when Wheldon passed him back. Trickle would eventually come home in the 3rd position.

In 2015, Trickle had brought his successful NASCAR team, Trickle Motorsports over to IndyCar. Trickle fielded his NASCAR star, Jason Leffler in the #46 Mello Yellow Chevrolet for the 2015 Indianapolis 500. Leffler had a few IndyCar starts including an Indy 500 start back in 2000. Leffler qualified his number 46 in the 15th positon, the team had an alliance with Chip Gannasi Racing who also gave them the engine. Leffler ran around 12th-16th most of the race, being a high of 9th on lap 112. Leffler ended up finished 12th in the race which was a win for the team in their first IndyCar start.

In 2016, 40 year old Leffler decided to step away from full-time NASCAR racing as he and Trickle Motorsports would enter the 2016 IndyCar Series, full-time with support from Chip Gannasi Racing. Mello Yellow and Vitamin Water sponsored the #46 Chevrolet for 2016. The team's 2nd ever race in the 2016 Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg, saw Leffler qualify 17th and finish 15th. The next 5 races saw Leffler get finishes of 19th, 20th, 12th, 18th, and 17th. Leffler finally scored a top 10 in the Iowa Corn 300 finishing 9th. He would go on to finish the season with a 5th place finish at Sonoma. Leffler would finish 19th in the 2016 standings.

In 2017, Leffler returned to the team with Mello Yellow sponsoring the entire schedule. Leffler would open the first 4 races of the 2017 season with finishes of 12th, 8th, 16th, and 11th. Trickle Motorsports left their alliance with Chip Gannasi after Gannasi announced the switch to Honda, the team then formed an alliance with Team Penske that benefited them better. In the IndyCar Grand Prix practice session, Leffler would have a horrific accident which saw him leave with a shoulder injury. The now 62 year old Trickle, had to fill in for Leffler. Trickle started in the last position due to the team missing qualifying but climbed to 17th where he would finish. Trickle had his Cup Series driver, Michael McDowell replace Leffler for the 2017 Indianapolis 500, then quickly get over to the Coca Cola 600 which happened later in the day. McDowell, with two Champ Car races back in 2005, looked to do the double. McDowell would qualify in the 22nd position and ended up finishing 17th. Leffler returned for the Detroit doubleheader and would finish 11th and 17th in both races. The next 2 races at Texas and Road America, Leffler finished in the 10th position. At Iowa, Leffler was able to place 5th after qualifying 9th. The final 6 races of the season, saw the team really improve in their development, Leffler finished 8th, 12th, 10th, 7th, 11th, and 4th.