Richie Evans

Did You Know?

• Evans' first oval-track car was a 1954 Ford Hobby Stock numbered PT-109, after John F. Kennedy's World War II torpedo boat.
• In the 1985 IROC Series, every orange car featured a '61' on the rear fender to honor Evans and his orange No. 61 car.
• Evans' No. 61 is the only retired number in NASCAR in any series, on the Whelen Modified Tour (unofficial).

Early career

At sixteen, Richie Evans left his family's Westernville, New York farm to work in a Rome garage. After winning in street and drag racing, fellow driver Chuck Mahoney urged him to build a car for Utica-Rome Speedway. In 1962, he debuted a 1954 Ford Hobby Stock, numbered PT-109, on the oval. Moving up to the Modified division, he captured his first feature win on the final night of the 1965 season.

National championships

Richie Evans, nicknamed the "Rapid Roman," first claimed the NASCAR National Modified title in 1973. He won it again in 1978 and held onto that championship for seven straight years. With over 400 feature wins from Quebec to Florida, Evans had just secured the first Winston Modified Tour championship a week before he died in a practice crash at Martinsville Speedway in late 1985.

Fatal crash and legacy

Richie Evans died on October 24, 1985, during practice for the Winn-Dixie 500 Modified race at Martinsville Speedway after hitting the Turn 3 concrete wall. His signature Swamp Holly Orange paint scheme came from paint borrowed from a highway department garage. In 1998, NASCAR named him one of the sport's 50 Greatest Drivers, and he entered the NASCAR Hall of Fame on January 20, 2012.

Awards and honors

Evans won 30 track championships at 11 tracks in 4 states, all in the Modified division on paved tracks. These include 5 at Thompson Speedway (1980–81, 1983–1985), 4 at Utica-Rome Speedway (1972–74, 1978), 4 at Holland Speedway (1978–80, 1982), 4 at Spencer Speedway (1977–78, 1983, 1985), 3 at Fulton Speedway (1970–71, 1974), 3 at Shangri-La Speedway (1975, 1977, 1982), 2 at New Egypt Speedway (1979, 1982), 2 at Stafford Speedway (1980–81), and 1 each at Chemung Speedrome (1978), Oswego Speedway (1983), and Riverside Park Speedway (1980). He was NASCAR Connecticut State Champion (1980–1981), NASCAR Winston Racing Series Northeast Region Champion (1982–1985), and New Smyrna World Series of Racing Modified Champion (1977, 1979–1981, 1983–1984). He won the Daytona International Speedway Modified race twice (1979–1980) and the Modified Race of Champions three times (1973 at Trenton Speedway, 1979 and 1980 at Pocono Raceway). His known feature wins total 518: 516 in Modifieds, 1 in Limited Sportsmen, and 1 in Supermodifieds, at 40 tracks in 12 U.S. states and 2 Canadian provinces.