Richard Ernest Evans was an American racing driver who as the the unquestioned king of modified racing won nine NASCAR National Modified Championships, including eight in a row from 1978 to 1985. The International Motorsports Hall of Fame lists this achievement as "one of the supreme accomplishments in motorsports".

Evans left his family's farm at age 16 to work at a local garage. After he found early success in street racing, then became a winner in drag racing, an associate suggested he try building a car to race at the nearby Utica-Rome Speedway. He ran his first oval-track car, a 1954 Ford Hobby Stock numbered PT-109 (after John F. Kennedy's torpedo boat in World War II), in 1962. He advanced to the Modifieds, the premier division, in 1965, winning his first feature in the season's final night.

In 1973, Evans became the NASCAR National Modified Champion. In 1978 he won a second title and did not relinquish his crown during the next seven years. Evans took over four hundred feature race wins at racetracks from Quebec to Florida before he was fatally injured at age 44 in a crash at Martinsville Speedway while practicing for the final race of the season, the Winn-Dixie 500 Tripleheader in late 1985 (three races in one day -- a 200-lap Modified race, a 200-lap Busch Series race, and a 100-lap Late Model race). Before his fatal crash, Evans had clinched the inaugural Winston Modified Tour (now known as Whelen Modified Tour) championship.

In 1979, Evans started 60 NASCAR Modified races and posted 54 top-five finishes -- including 37 victories. In 1986, Evans was inducted into the National Motorsports Press Association's Hall of Fame at Darlington (S.C.) Raceway and the International Motorsports Hall of Fame in Talladega, Alabama.