Former NASCAR Modified champion Carl “Bugsy” Stevens is recovering following a bike-riding crash. The news, released on Tuesday, came via racing journalist Mark “Bones” Bourcier on Facebook.
“Three-time NASCAR National Modified champion Bugs Stevens phoned to report that he’d fractured a couple of vertebrae (one thoracic, one lumbar),” Bourcier wrote.
The injury came during what Bourcier says was a “slow-speed Florida bike-riding crash.”
Throughout his career, Stevens piled on success in Modified racing, driving the famed ‘Ole Blue’ No. 3 for Boehler Racing, a car that still competes on the NASCAR Modified circuit today with Matt Swanson behind the wheel.
Stevens also was a champion at Connecticut’s Stafford Motor Speedway and Thompson Speedway Motorsports Park, along with Seekonk Speedway, a Massachusetts oval, and multiple other tracks in the New England area.
His success didn’t only come in Modifieds, as Stevens competed in three Monster Energy Cup Series races during his time behind the wheel, all of which in 1970. He finished sixth in the World 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway driving a car for Richard Brown.
He ran the first three years of the modern era in the Whelen Modified Tour, grabbing a best finish of second driving the famed ‘Mystic Missile’ for Bob Garbarino.
