CUP: SPEED Premiering Richie Evans Biography Special

Sprint Cup

CUP: SPEED Premiering Richie Evans Biography Special

SPEED celebrates the life and accomplishments of Richie Evans in a one-hour biography special premiering Friday at 8 p.m. ET...

Megan Englehart | Posted December 14, 2011 Charlotte, NC

“KING OF MODIFIEDS” TAKES SEAT ALONGSIDE STOCK CAR ROYALTY IN 2012 NASCAR HALL OF FAME

ONE-HOUR SPEED™ SPECIAL EXAMINES HOW EVANS’ TALENT, FLAMBOYANCE ELEVATED HIM FROM REGIONAL TO NATIONAL ACCLAIM

He wasn’t born and raised in the South like several of his NASCAR Hall of Fame predecessors. The majority of his racing took place in the Northeast and he wasn’t a household name like many NASCAR legends, but New York’s Richie Evans will be immortalized alongside those stock car heroes in the 2012 class of the NASCAR Hall of Fame.

Evans, recognized as the “king of Modified racing,” captured nine NASCAR Modified championships in 13 years, including a streak of eight consecutive beginning in 1978. He won an estimated 475 feature races, earning him multiple track championships throughout the Northeast. Evans’ life and career was cut short, however, when he was fatally injured in 1985 during a practice session at Martinsville Speedway. Afterward, the 44-year-old’s No. 61 became the first and only car number retired in any NASCAR division.

SPEED and NASCAR Media Group celebrate the life and accomplishments of “The Rapid Roman” in a one-hour biography special premiering Friday, Dec. 16 at 8 p.m. ET. Evans will be inducted into the third class of the NASCAR Hall of Fame on Jan. 20 (airs on SPEED Jan. 22 at 6 p.m. ET) alongside Cale Yarborough, Darrell Waltrip, Dale Inman and Glen Wood.

Evans was worshipped in the Northeast racing circles. “The Rapid Roman” from Rome, New York, not only dominated on the race track, including the 1979 season when he won 37 of 60 races; he decimated the field in popularity with his flamboyant and fun-loving personality.

“Richie Evans was an original, colorful personality, and there has been no one like him since,” said Dick Berggren, a SPEED and FOX Sports reporter who covered Evans for most of his career while working for Motor Racing Network (MRN), Stock Car Racing and Speedway Scene. “The driving certainly was a big part of him, but the fun-loving Richie Evans was also a huge portion of who he was. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a guy who was more popular in the grandstands than Richie. He brought people to the grandstands who were thrilled with watching him race, but he also brought people who just wanted to see this outrider, this guy who was so different from so many of the others. The stories, even without embellishment, are hard to imagine in today’s world.”

Berggren likens Evans’ driving style and gregarious persona to that of the late Tim Richmond.

“So much of his flash and fun-loving side was like Tim Richmond’s,” Berggren stated. “There are so many stories of the hijinks he engaged himself in and the stuff he did. I tried to stay away from that during my entire career, which I suppose is why I still have one (laughing). He was so much fun to watch in anything he drove.”

While Evans could peg the “fun meter,” he also could buckle down and separate work from play.

“For all the screwing around he did, when he pulled the helmet on, he changed,” Berggren explained. “The switch flipped. He became a hard-nosed competitor who was completely focused on where his car was in relation to everyone else’s, getting it to the front and keeping it there.”

“When he put his helmet on, it was all business and he didn’t care about anything but racing,” said Jimmy Spencer, a two-time Modified champion who now serves as a SPEED analyst. “Afterward, you’d drink beers and sleep at his house if you needed a place to crash. He reminded me a lot of Dale Earnhardt in that respect. When Richie put that helmet on, he had no friends. He was there to win the race and was one of the best I’ve ever raced against. You knew if you beat Richie, you beat the best.”

And if a driver wanted to outrun Evans, he had to give it his all and do it in style.

“There always was drama around Richie,” Berggren reflected. “The race I remember the most was the Martinsville race where he and Geoff Bodine tangled with a couple of laps to go and literally bounced off of each other for two laps at the finish. They came across the line crashing with Richie winning the race and Bodine finishing second - both cars steaming hunks of metal in the infield. It was a beautiful thing. They both felt they had to drive that hard to beat the other. I know people who sat in that grandstands that day who still say that was the closest to a stock car race they ever saw, and without Richie, they wouldn’t have had that.”

While Evans was a hero in the Northeast and in the Modified ranks, his wasn’t a household name because the Modified division lacked the national exposure enjoyed by the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series.

“The racing he did was very regional,” Berggren said. “Richie Evans wasn’t someone who would be on TV on every week on a national stage. Richie’s racing pretty much took place in the Northeast except for the wintertime when he would race at New Smyrna Speedway or wherever else he could find. So, a lot of people who will see Richie inducted never watched him race because he wasn’t on TV and didn’t race all over the country. And, of course, those people probably won’t fully appreciate what we all witnessed and enjoyed.”

Evans’ accomplishments are that much more impressive considering they were achieved with limited manpower.

“Richie built his own stuff, operated his own shop and went after championships at a time when a guy had to run upwards of 90 or 100 races a year, and he did all that with a remarkably small crew,” Berggren recalled. “Today’s racer wants a lot more support and help than Richie ever had. He did it his own way -- he did it the hard way -- from the ground up, from pieces of straight steel tubing up to building the cars to driving the cars to driving the tow truck and whatever it took.”

Evans’ induction into the NASCAR Hall of Fame not only shines the spotlight on a spectacular career, it may open doors to racers across all of NASCAR.

“Putting Richie Evans in the NASCAR Hall of Fame solidifies the Hall of Fame,” Spencer said. “It shows all these guys racing from California to Maine to Florida they can make a name for themselves if they want to stay in NASCAR. They can become a Hall of Fame member. His presence brings attention to the great drivers that have come up through the years and notoriety to NASCAR from all across the country, and it rounds out NASCAR’s history.”

About SPEED™
SPEED, anchored by its popular and wide-ranging coverage of NASCAR, is the nation’s first and only cable television network dedicated to automotive and motorcycle racing, performance and lifestyle. Now available in nearly 84 million homes in North America, SPEED, a member of the FOX Sports Media Group, is among the industry leaders in interactive TV, video on demand, mobile initiatives and broadband services, including SPEED2, a groundbreaking new broadband network featuring live, streaming and on-demand events complementing offerings of the linear network. For more information, please visit SPEED.com, the online motor sports authority.

About FOX Sports Media Group
FOX Sports Media Group (FSMG) is the umbrella entity representing News Corporation’s wide array of multi-platform US-based sports assets under Chairman & CEO David Hill. Built with brands that are capable of reaching more than 100 million viewers in a single weekend, FSMG includes ownership and interests in linear television networks, digital and mobile programming, broadband platforms, multiple web sites, joint-venture businesses and several licensing partnerships. FSMG now includes FOX Sports, the sports television arm of the FOX Broadcasting Company; Fox’s 19 regional sports networks, their affiliated regional web sites and FSN national programming; SPEED and SPEED2; Fox Soccer Channel and Fox Soccer Plus; FUEL TV; and Fox College Sports. In addition, FSMG also includes FOX Sports Interactive Media, which comprises FOXSports.com on MSN, whatifsports.com and scout.com, reaching nearly 30 million unique visitors monthly. Also included are Fox’s interests in joint-venture businesses FOX Deportes, Big Ten Network and STATS, LLC, as well as licensing agreements that establish the FOX Sports Radio Network, FOX Sports Skybox restaurants and FOX Sports Grills.