Red Barclay was a trucker Homer went up against in a steak eating contest in "Maximum Homerdrive," which gave fans a first: a Homer Simpson who didn't want to keep eating ("there's still food, but I don't want to eat it."). They had a special bond: He called Homer "greenhorn" and Homer called him Tony Randall. It was a thing they had. All kidding aside, Barclay dying at the end of the contest, having out-eaten the voracious Homer Simpson, was more than a little disturbing, especially when Dr. Hibbert suggested that the cause of death was beef poisoning - though probably from some other restaurant. Yeah, sure.