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Winning them in the same year was considered impossibleuntil Mackey did it in 2007. Dog Musher. Lived In Rock Hill SC, Sumter SC, Lancaster SC. The massive extraction left only a thin layer of skin covering one of the main arteries to Mackey's brain. I could feed them parts of cigarettes and they'd stand up, thank me, and go again. By the time Mackey reached Seattle, Zorro's near-death experience had become big news in Alaska and beyond. [citation needed], Mackey's parents divorced at a young age. But Cold Spot Feeds has an account set up where people can donate to help with dog food and supplies. Twice? Everything you could possibly do wrong, I did.. There should be a thorough investigation into the reasons why not one but, His team was 15th to the Bering Sea coast. Join Facebook to connect with Tonya Mackey and others you may know. It was like a truck hitting a Pinto, Mackey told a reporter the next day. To do that means entering races with small purses, races that cost money even if you win. In that span of time, he was four times champion of both the Quest and the Iditarod. Lance Mackey was born on June 2, 1970, in Anchorage. The Nome Kennel Club was holding the All-Alaska Sweepstakes that year, an occasional event that would have a purse of $100,000. It was an encouraging start. [11] He has also previously spoken about his struggles with cocaine and alcohol. He came away with a new understanding of resilience, bravery, and the iron bond between a musher and his dogs. Winds light and variable.. A few clouds. I'm hitting reset. To the surprise of many, he even showed up at the post-race banquet. Why the hassle when guys like Dallas get away with Tramadol and dont even loose their prize money? ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) Lance Mackey, one of mushing's most colorful and accomplished champions who also suffered from health and drug issues, has died. Don't get me started. First Republic Bank. Knowing what happened, Mackey said, didn't make it any easier to accept the loss, but it did give him some peace of mind., When Mackey got home, he turned immediately to Iditarod preparations. My last Iditarod was in 2016. At the Actual start in Willow, Alaska, my guy, Lance Mackey: On edit: Mods, move if needed (Lounge) - already posted in Alaska forum. Click to reveal He finished 16th and came in for surprisingly strong criticism in Alaska. Mackey died of throat cancer on September 7, 2022. For a short time, the two wayward souls indulged each other's bad habits. MyNewsGH. His tail began to thump the box's wall. In a recent Iditarod, one of Lance Mackey's male dogs ripped out all of his 16 toenails trying to get to a female who was in heat. If Mackey was around, he might have joined in on the wake and bake. Advertisement Lance Mackey Image Credit: Sportskeeda.com Jenne Smith and Lance Mackey with their kids in better times/Facebook. They moved to the Kenai Peninsula, south of Anchorage, and lived in a shack on a beach owned by a friend. Unfortunately, Zorro's career was cut short after a snow-machine accident during the 2008 All-Alaskan Sweepstakes. As he prepared for the season's two biggest events, Mackey was at a breaking point. "I know you don't love me but you . ANCHORAGE, Alaska Lance Mackey, one of mushing's most colorful and accomplished champions who also suffered from health and drug issues, has died. His recovery reminded me of my own, he wrote in his autobiography. But troopers said there were no dogs attached to Smiths four-wheeler. And one thing I always noticed: the mental downs that a lot of us experiencethe little things on the trail that hurt usdon't affect him as much., Mackey stayed in Nome for the Iditarod banquet, then flew home to Fairbanks and was once again difficult to reach. Performance & security by Cloudflare. Mackey and Smith had parented two children, Atigun and Lozen, who were both under the age of five at the time of the fatal accident. A mushereven a great oneis only as good as his dogs, and for Mackey, two have risen above the rest. He shouldn't have been anywhere near the race, but he endured 440 excruciating miles before bowing out, mainly because the Ensure he carried to pour into his feeding tube kept freezing, making it almost impossible for him to eat. Mackey sat on the floor by the box and said, softly: Zorro, old buddy, how you doing? Zorro didn't open his eyes, but he must have known who was speaking. Rick Swenson's five wins happened over a 14-year span. The dogs wouldn't eat, became dehydrated, and could barely jog. I am not at all embarrassed to say that I jerked his pecker to help him complete the deed., As Mackey walked me around the yard one frigid afternoon, he nodded his head at the sprawling collection of dogs, doghouses, and dog stuff. Way to drag his life through the mud during this heartbreaking tragedy, but thats what you do best. Explore Lance Mackey Wiki Age, Height, Biography as Wikipedia, Wife, Family relation. [14], Some of Mackey's practices at his kennel were criticized publicly, particularly the use of CBD treatment for his dogs. (My copy was signed by her, I'm impressed she got the time) Wayne Shorter family, wife, children, parents, siblings, Wayne Shorter parents: Meet Joseph Shorter, Louise Shorter, Wayne Shorter siblings: Meet Alan Shorter, Hajia4Real tops Twitter trends following U.S. jail reports, Sulley Muntari, Agyeman Badu, Asamoah Gyan, others visit Christian Atsus family home, VIDEO: Government will be fully involved in providing Christian Atsu a befitting burial Dr. Bawumia, Christian Atsus mortal remains arrive in Ghana via Turkish Airlines, Maybe I created enemies along the line Kofi Amoabeng on UT Banks collapse, Christian Atsu was one of Ghanas finest personnel Akufo-Addo. The Trooper report on the accident provided little information as to what exactly happened. Radiation treatments weakened him more. There should be a thorough investigation into the reasons why not one but two dogs died on Lance Mackeys team this year, and this shamelessly cruel event must be stopped before more dogs are injured, run to death, or killed in other ways, the animal rights organization demanded that year. Their public criticism followed the death of two of Lance's dogs due to unknown causes during the 2015 Iditarod. Iditaord rules did not specifically prohibit the drug, but the rules do contain a provision banning pain medications.. Lyrics, Song Meanings, Videos, Full Albums & Bios: Midnight Cowboy, Meadows Of My Mind, Autumn Winds, Is It You, Come Back My Love, Just Ask Me, Captain Of A Ship, Don't Forget, Are You Really Meant For Me, Bar, One Thin Dime, Did You Know [3], Mackey raced from the time he was a child; his father recalls building a sled for Lance as soon as he was old enough to hold on and then, watching him enter and win his very first race. Even at the height of his powers, Mackey said, he'd never managed to climb out of the red. Printer Friendly | Permalink | | Top: . Details of death: Died of throat cancer at the. The agency reported receiving a 911 call shortly after 10 a.m. on Monday that revealed Smith had been discovered deceased near a friends residence on Resolution Road. But Zorro loved to race, had an insatiable appetite, and never lost any weight, not even on the trail. Lance Mackey was known to be the our-time winner of both the 1,000-mile Yukon Quest and the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race. After testing positive for methamphetamine, he was later disqualified and checked into an East Coast recovery facility. His tone sagged. But I can't afford to feed, train, and race them adequately. So he sold 20 of the best dogs to Sonny Lindner, keeping only his five old-guard leadersRev, Amp, Munch, Mare, and Mapleplus the 55 puppies. When I visited Comeback Kennel, Carter and Peterson were the only other people still around full-time. The babies are safe. I'm not feeding the boys lamb, I promise you., Though he makes money from racing, sponsorship, and mushing instruction, Mackey's ledger was solidly in the red, in keeping with dog racing's ongoing financial woes. He was a natural and had a will to win and thats what really counts.. And then did it again in 2008. Based on the preliminary investigation, it appears Smith had rolled her ATV late on Sunday and became trapped under the vehicle. 03/16/2010Lance Mackey won the Iditarod of 2010 for his fourth consecutive win!! He was chugging along in third, trying to figure out what was wrong, when a surprise gust of wind blew his sled into a drift, upturning the basket and spilling dogs into deep snow. The legendary dog musher was first diagnosed with throat cancer back in 2001 . Leave the kennel to the boys and go away somewhere where no one knows me., Test results soon revealed that an imbalance of iron from the dogs' supplements had shut down their appetites. In that same post, the four-time Iditarod champion reached out to the mushing community to see if any competitive racers would be interested in taking on some of his top dogs this year. Mackey was first diagnosed with throat cancer in 2001, and underwent treatment. And as long as Zorro could walk, he could mate. The event, coordinated by Hugh Neff and Lauren Manning, included a silent auction of donated items, including a well-illustrated portrait of the musher and stories shared by some of those who knew or were inspired by Mackeys determination, grit and down-to-earth nature. Had he done nothing else, Lance Mackey would be a legend for that accomplishment, but he ended up winning both races four times and taking the Iditarod an unprecedented four years in a row, from 2007 to 2010. The right side of his face and neck are sunken, the result of numerous cancer surgeries that scooped out most of the tissue between skin and bone. He was 52. (907) 457-8555, Thank you for letting me know. Friends need to be strong for him and his children. Lance Mackey (born June 2, 1970) is an American dog musher and dog sled racer from Fairbanks, Alaska, who is a four-time winner of the 1,000-mile Yukon Quest and four-time winner of the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race. He recalls a night a year or so back when he still had dogs living on a hill up above his house. Half-buried in icy, urine-stained snow, it is tasked daily with slicing up whole skinned beavers, along with halal-certified lamb chunks, 50-pound blocks of ground chicken and beef, and big king salmonall of it frozen as solid as the rolling countryside near Fairbanks, Alaska, where any wintertime temperature above minus 20 degrees, Mackey told me, is tropical. I've won as many races as anyone, and I'm broke-ass.. Senator Lisa Murkowski on his fourth consecutive Iditarod win and acknowledged his determination and perseverance in both his personal and professional matters. I didn't think I'd say anything is harder than climbing Everest, Abbott said, but this is a lot harder.. The damage to the sled and the team was minimal, but one dog came out of the wreckage with a limp. After testing positive for methamphetamine, he was later disqualified and checked into an East Coast recovery facility. In particular, Mackey and the boys blame their neighbor Ken Anderson, also a musher, for complaining about it, and Anderson had become such a hated personage around Comeback Kennel that Mackey wouldn't even utter his name, insisting that he be called my dipshit neighbor. He is a favorite target in rap songs by the Musherz. At one point, Braxton Petersonracing for the first time and hoping only to finishpassed him. See full bio Born: June 2, 1970 in Anchorage, Alaska, USA Died: September 7, 2022 (age 52) in Anchorage, Alaska, USA Biography Awards Photo Gallery Filmography (by Job) Trailers and Videos I'm on the verge of bankruptcy.. Mackey usually wears a baseball capeven when he's mushing, when he tucks it under a fur-trimmed hoodand he keeps his long, infrequently washed hair in a ponytail that stretches down to his spiky shoulder blades. That's what I'm doing again, he said. Mackey was subsequently disqualifed from the race, leaving him with a record of four wins, six top-10 finishes, three scratches, one DQ, and seven races as an also-ran in a 20-year Iditarod career. Two bitches were in heat simultaneously, and Mackey was awakened by a yelping commotion: Zorro was trying to mate them. I tried to connect with him for two months, racking up a calls-to-callbacks ratio of around twenty to one. His second woman, Jenne Smith, perished in an all-terrain vehicle accident many months after the 2020 race was over. December 2022; Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat; 1. But Lance, Tonya once wrote, was like an erupting volcanothe energy of his personality had to go somewhere. Over time he made enough money fishing to buy a piece of land and build a small cabin, and there he reconnected with sled dogs. The four-time Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race winner died Wednesday from cancer, his father and kennel announced on Facebook. Dog Mushers. We have used your information to see if you have a subscription with us, but did not find one. Mackey had lost three major sponsors in the previous two years, worth a total of $40,000. I started the conversation with 'I climbed Mount Everest last year,' Abbott told me as we all sat together at a Mexican restaurant in Fairbanks. He left the ADN in 2015. Mackey's former wife, Tonya, was charged with assaulting Lance in an Anchorage hotel parking lot in 2012. At age 27 he reconnected with a high school friend, Tonya. >> Read more trending news Mackey died from. Lance Mackey-- a 4-time Iditarod champion -- has been diagnosed with cancer again after battling the disease in 2001. I can watch them in action. He said that Lindner's would be the team to beat next year. He has no manager, so you have to reach him by telephone, which doesn't work too well, since he rarely answers and his outgoing message usually says: I'm on a run, call me back.. It ended in Galena, and I havent been the same since. He was previously married to Tonya. He was recently married to Jenne Smith who died tragically in an ATV accident. As he sawed away, the 43-year-old Mackey certainly looked like a guy who'd spent thousands of hours standing upright on a sled pointed into blasts of Arctic wind. Jenne was my rock during my rehab and recovery. When Mackey walked into the clinic, he saw Zorro lying in a kennel, connected to IVs, sound asleep. PETA criticized Mackey in a public statement claiming the cruelty of dog racing. Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window), Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window), View craigmedred.newss profile on Facebook. It was one of the fastest cars on the track. Unsolicited letters and packages began to arrive at Mackey's home from around the worldten dollars here, twenty there, plus dog snacks, blankets, and notes of love and encouragement. There is considerable debate in the medical community of how much worse things will get as winter arrives and Alaskans increasingly move indoors. I knew of him through his reputation long before I met him, Glasgow said. There is no question Lance Mackey is the most famous & most loved celebrity of all the time. Lance was 52. Lance Mackey was born on 2 June 1970 in Anchorage, Alaska, USA. I find Lance Mackey, the 4X Iditarod Champ, back in town. His mother placed fourth in the Women's North American Championships in 1970, when she was seven months pregnant with him. Lance Mackey, probably the best known member of the famous Mackey dog mushing family, has suffered another major loss. Each has a nearly shaved head and a profusion of tattoos, several of which were obtained the previous summer while working on a tugboat off the coast of San Diego. This type of broken toenail is extremely painful. [27], Last edited on 19 December 2022, at 15:49, "Alaska mushing legend Lance Mackey, 4-time Iditarod champ, has died at age 52", "Like father, like son: Iditarod Hall of Fame", "2001 Iditarod Race Results - 2001 Iditarod - Iditarod", "Lance Mackey - Musher Career Summary - Race Archives - Iditarod", "With bow to dogs, Mackey wins third straight Iditarod", "Defending Iditarod champion Lance Mackey concedes 2011 race", "Iditarod DQ's Lance Mackey for positive meth test during race", "Lance Mackey: The World's Toughest Athlete", "Sled dog struck by snowmobile likely to recover", "Iditarod's oldest musher quits, another gives dogs CBD oil", "PETA Statement: Third Dog Dies During 2015 Iditarod", "Still no clear answer to what killed 2 Mackey dogs during 2015 Iditarod", "Health issues could end four-time Iditarod winner's career", "Iditarod champion Lance Mackey: the world's toughest athlete", "Jenne Smith, partner of Iditarod musher Lance Mackey, has died", "Jennifer Smith Obituary (1988 - 2020) - Fairbanks, AK - Monterey Herald", "Cancer claims 4-time Iditarod champion Lance Mackey", "Murkowski Congratulates Lance Mackey and His Team on Winning the Iditarod | U.S. The babies are going on four-year-old Atigun and going on two-year-old Lozen. Former Chief Justice Of India AM Ahmadi Passes Away; Fluxus und Freiheitsliebe: Mary Bauermeister gestorben (in German) French-Syrian opposition figure Bassma Kodmani dies at 64: Mushing fans rallied to Mackeys side, but by the start of this years race he sounded like a man digging his way out of an emotional pit. [20] In October 2020, Mackey's partner, Jenne Smith, tragically died in an ATV accident. It wasn't even a difficult decision. Mackey managed to get the novice into sufficient shape to finish the Iditarod, using dogs he provided. Lance Mackey was a famous American dog musher and dog sled racer who died died on September 7, 2022 at the age of 52. Time to go see my babies, Mackey said, spreading love and pats from house to house as he walked among the 18 dogs that made up the kennel's current A-team. Of course, Mackey knew that the future was all about other dogs. Really enjoyed this book-knowing little about Lance before reading it I was impressed with his honesty and refreshing lack of self sympathy. Every house here is his, he said of Zorro. When I loaded those 20 dogs in Sonny's truck, that was the hardest day of my life, he said. After radiation treatment that led to the degradation of his teeth, his cancer was deemed in remission. Neff noted despite the difficult life Mackey endured, he was an ordinary person who like the rest of us wasnt particularly a saint, just another guy., A lot of people like to think of Lance Mackey as just this great champion, but it wasnt what he did on the trail that defined who he was, Neff said. On the 3,000-foot ascent of a peak called Eagle Summit during the 2008 Yukon Quest, it was Zorro who carried the day. If he wants my bed, I sleep on the couch. [12], Mackey ran his kennel "Comeback Kennel" on a 5 acre plot of land near Fairbanks, Alaska. It was a body blow, he said, the kidney punch from hell. What made the failure so hard to accept was that, for the first time since 2010, he was both prepared and confident in his dogs. Redirecting to /1870186/lance-mackey-worlds-toughest-athlete/ (308) Temperatures were unseasonably warm, his dogs wouldn't eat, and Mackey made the tough decision to start cutting animals from his team, because individual dog health is always more important to him than results. Contact reporter Jack Barnwell at 907-459-7587 or jbarnwell@newsminer.com. He left four dogs in Carmacks, another at Pelly Crossing, and two more at Scroggle Creek. Many have wondered whether the American dog racer had his own kids. Happy dogs hopped and yipped as he doled out chunks of frozen salmon. They were home with me at the time. It's a complete start-over., When I pressed for more details about his Iditarod experience, he was reluctant to get into it. Lance Mackey died of cancer. Mackey was too broke to run the Iditarod the following year, so he focused on strengthening himself and his team. ', Friends found her, it said, and Smith was not believed to be wearing a helmet at the time of the collision.. Five years later, Lance's older brother, Rick, also won. Mackey was a four-time winner of both the 1,000-mile (1,600km) Yukon Quest and the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race. Born In 1970. And make some money. Mackey had no choice but to carry Zorro with him in the sled basket, even though that meant another 70 pounds his team had to pull. Musher Hugh Neff shares a few stories about the late mushing legend Lance Mackey during a tribute Saturday at the Howling Dog Saloon in Fox. Mackey didn't seem embarrassed to tell me this, but the reality of it was hurting him. Glasgow reflected that Smith, the mother of Mackeys children, was a Howling Dog bartender. Mackey, 51, shared the news on Facebook Tuesday. It's impossible to say exactly how a musher can go from dominant to average as quickly as it happened to Mackey, but he's not alone. In 2011, Mackey and his wife Tonya decided to get a divorce. He was 27. Sixteenth in the 2011 Iditarod, Mackey had fallen to 43 by 2015 and failed to even finish two of the next three races in which he competed. Meanwhile, Mackey is wrestling with a family tragedy, and friends are worrying the loss of his life partner could seriously hamper his continuing recovery. This website is using a security service to protect itself from online attacks. They were so poor that Tonya cut her daughters' hair short because the family couldn't afford shampoo. Despite this, he did not let his diagnosis impede his career and entered the 2002 Iditarod race. So that had to be made up out of my pocket, out of my race earnings last year, which were $25,000, he said. Winds light and variable. I reminded him of what he'd told me during my visit, that if he didn't win one of the two races, or at least place high, he was going to quit. (Photo, Country Journal) Dog Musher. And wouldn't you know it, at the midway point of the 2013 race, who should be the first to arrive at Iditarodthe ghost town that marks the halfway point and gives the race its namebut Lance Mackey. Mackey arranged to fly him to a vet in Seattle, accompanied by Braxton Peterson, while Mackey stayed behind to deal with legal issues concerning the drunk driver. In a 2021 interview, Mackey said his children helped through a second cancer diagnosis. Beaver isn't the kind of meat you can buy over the counter, but Mackey's mom has a good connection, a trapper down around Anchorage. Lance Mackey. Lance Mackey. There are several kennels along the road. Editor at Ghanafuo.com! Please include what you were doing when this page came up and the Cloudflare Ray ID found at the bottom of this page. Lance Mackey was born on June 2, 1970, in Anchorage. This is who I am. [1] Contents 1 Early life 2 Career 3 Kennel practices and dogs 4 Personal life 5 Honors and accomplishments [22] On October 4, 2020, Mackey's partner, Jenne Smith, tragically died in an ATV accident. Lance Mackey is a professional dog musher and dog sled racer who has won the 1,000-mile Yukon Quest four times, the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race four times, and is a cancer survivor. Some stop eating for various reasons, and that's when you dish up the beaver. According to sources she had three children in the past, whom Mackey raised as his own. Operating a kennel with 80-some dogs is exhausting work, and much of the food prep and poop disposal in recent winters has been left to a pair of young handlers whom Mackey often referred to as his sons. Cain Carter, 21, is actually the son of Mackey's ex-wife, Tonya, a longtime mainstay at the kennel who was expelled during an ugly split in 2011. Mackey revealed that, honestly, he hadn't even wanted to run the 2013 Iditarod. Sonny has money, he won't skimp on food. I have no idea when he'll be back. He shrugged and asked if I wanted to come inside anyway. Resides in Fort Mill, SC. Across the sport, purses have been going down, mainly because of recessionary impacts on sponsorship. He was predictably harried. He participated in dog sled races as a teenager but left the sport and as a young man became, by his account, a heavy-drinking, drug-using fisherman. Your current subscription does not provide access to this content. He was sure it was just a bad tooth, and when a dentist agreed, Mackey went ahead with the race, only to have the pain become excruciating on the trail. This is top-quality lamb, Mackey said, kicking a box stamped HALAL. [19] Cancer is not the only ailment that challenged Mackey. Unfortunately, it was Zorro. Then, in 1998, they decided to clean up together, picking Lance's birthdayJune 2as the end of one era and the start of another. Mackey also pursued an ambition of racing cars, both in the Lower 48 and in Alaska. She was held until her arraignment in Anchorage court on Tuesday. She wanted to prove to herself, in the most extreme way possible, that life could go on despite her condition. Please log in, or sign up for a new account and purchase a subscription to continue reading. Zorro was born in 2000 and at one point, Mackey's entire team was composed of Zorro's offspring. There was fatigue in his voice, and a mix of sadness and anger. Ten years earlier they had both been addicted to cocaine and were in the . More June 2 . Behind the scheme: How play-drawing has become invaluable tool in the McVay-Shanahan coaching tree. The core of the team that carried Mackey to greatness has by now mostly retired to a life of leisure around the yard. John Shewfelt Jr. and Shot Time perform at the Howling Dog Saloon Saturday, Oct. 8, 2022, in conjunction with the A Night for Lance fundraiser to raise money for Lance Mackeys children. He bred Rosie to a star dog from a friend's kennel, and when it came time to split the litter, he picked first and chose Zorro, a little furball mutt who would become the genetic foundation of Mackey's kennel, the linchpin of some of his greatest teams, and one of the most famous dogs ever to run across Alaska. Resolution Road is a quarter- to half-mile, unpaved spur off the Old Murphy Dome Road home to more dogs than people. Mackey stuffs his dogs with the best food he can buy and lets them run slowly while it digests. Anchorage Police Department spokesperson Lt. Dave Parker told KTVA that police found enough "physical evidence" to take Tonga Mackey into custody, Monday. But then Mackey didn't seem thrilled about much of anything by the time I got to Alaska. Feb. 28KNIK A few words rattle around in Jason Mackey's head as he prepares to return to the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race. After finishing 36th, Mackey was referred to a specialist, who told him he had cancersquamous-cell carcinoma, which can be caused by excessive sun exposure or tobacco usein his jaw and neck. ANCHORAGE, Alaska Lance Mackey, a colorful musher who was a four-time winner of the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, died Wednesday. Mackey was a single parent when he died. If you were standing in the ER with a team of physicians, and a dog jumped up and scratched your neck, one doctor said, we would not be able to save you. What's more, without salivary glands, Mackey would have to carry water at all times just so he could swallow. I'd sleep in at checkpoints. If you're on the couch and he wants your seat, I'll tell you to get on the floor.. Once Zorro worked up to 15 steps, Mackey knew he would walk again. Last Name Mackey #10. The four-time Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race . Dog food costs him more than $30,000 a year, and that's after generous contributions from his feed sponsor, Red Paw, plus bulk discounts and a network of friends and family who help provide some of his more expensive meats. As Frank Gerjevic, a member of the Idita-rod Hall of Fame selection committee, said when inducting Mackey in 2009: He could start breeding cats tomorrow and still belong in the Hall of Fame. Over the fall and winter, he'd been working through his best new candidates, trying to identify which dogs were fast, durable, of sound mind, and willing to eat when he needed them to eat. Whether a particular racer can endure and win again after losing depends on that person's ability to rebuild. One is that he seems to require almost no sleep. it is dedicated to the idea that if everyone is thinking alike, someone is not thinking. That 2019 race ended with a 26th place finish that came after Mackey showed signs he might be on the way back to being the force of old. [24], Mackey died of throat cancer on September 7, 2022, at the age of 52.