Evans grew up in Westernville, New York and left his family's farm at age 16 to work at a local garage in Rome, New York. After finding success in street racing and drag racing, he was encouraged by local stock car racer Chuck Mahoney to try oval competition. He built a 1954 Ford Hobby Stock — numbered PT-109 after John F. Kennedy's World War II torpedo boat — and ran his first oval-track race at Utica-Rome Speedway in 1962. He advanced quickly to the Modified division, the premier short-track category, winning his first feature in the season's final night in 1965.
Evans won his first NASCAR National Modified Championship in 1973. In 1978 he claimed his second title and began a dynasty that would last until his death: eight consecutive national championships without a single interruption from 1978 through 1985. During this period he became known as the "Rapid Roman," a nickname reflecting both his speed and his roots in Rome, New York.
Evans competed with his signature Swamp Holly Orange paint scheme — a color borrowed originally from the local highway department garage. His No. 61 car became one of the most recognizable machines in short-track racing. He took over 400 feature victories at racetracks ranging from Quebec to Florida. His 518 known feature wins included 516 in Modifieds, one in Limited Sportsmen, and one in Supermodifieds, at 40 tracks across 12 U.S. states and two Canadian provinces.
Evans held remarkable dominance over individual facilities. At Shangri-La Speedway in Owego, New York, he won 66 feature events. He recorded 52 victories at Spencer Speedway, 44 at Fulton Speedway, 39 at New Smyrna Speedway in Florida, 38 at Stafford Motor Speedway, and 35 at Thompson Speedway. He accumulated 30 track championships at 11 tracks across four states, all in the Modified division on paved surfaces.
He won the Race of Champions three times and the New Smyrna World Series of Racing Modified championship six times. He was a two-time winner at Daytona International Speedway in the Modified class in 1979 and 1980, and won the NASCAR Connecticut State Championship in 1980 and 1981. When NASCAR created the Whelen All-American Series (then known as the Winston Racing Series) in 1982, Evans won the Northeast Region championship all four years he competed in it.
In 2003, NASCAR named Evans the top Modified driver of all time on its Modified All-Time Top 10 list. Fans had selected him as NASCAR Modifieds' Most Popular Driver nine times. He was one of NASCAR's 50 Greatest Drivers as named in 1998 during the sport's 50th anniversary celebration, and was later included on the list of NASCAR's 75 Greatest Drivers in 2023.
On October 24, 1985, Evans was practicing at Martinsville Speedway in Virginia for the Winn-Dixie 500, a tripleheader event that included Modified, Busch Grand National, and Late Model races. He had clinched the 1985 National Modified championship the week prior at Thompson, Connecticut, in what would be the inaugural NASCAR Winston Modified Tour championship. During practice, Evans crashed heavily into the concrete retaining wall in Turn 3 and died from his injuries.
Evans' No. 61 was retired at Utica-Rome Speedway in 2008. His number is informally retired across the Whelen Modified Tour, the only such retired number in any NASCAR series. During the 1985 IROC Series, every orange car in the field carried a "61" on the rear fender to honor him.
Evans was inducted into the National Motorsports Press Association Hall of Fame in 1986, the International Motorsports Hall of Fame in 1996, the New England Auto Racers Hall of Fame as part of its inaugural 1998 class, and the New York State Stock Car Association Hall of Fame. He was elected to the NASCAR Hall of Fame on June 14, 2011, as part of the inaugural group, and formally inducted on January 20, 2012 — the first Hall of Famer from outside the now-named NASCAR Cup Series.
His nine total championships tie him with Mike Stefanik for the most in NASCAR history, though Evans' record of eight in a row remains a standard that has never been approached.