Every local racetrack has their heroes, their icons and their larger than life drivers that become legends.  At Kingsport Speedway and Lonesome Pine Raceway, that legend was Roger Neece.  On Monday, Neece’s life came to an end, but his legacy lives on.

Neece, 59, from Clintwood, Virginia, won 204 races and 10 championships in Street Stock racing.  Neece’s black no. 22 Street Stock became synonymous with racing at Kingsport and Lonesome Pine over the years.  The loss of a member of the racing family is always difficult, but Neece was not just another racer, he was the Tri-Cities region’s Dale Earnhardt.

“It’s really tough,” Karen Tunnell, promoter at Kingsport and Lonesome Pine, said.  I’ve known Roger Neece for maybe 20 years.  My first cousin was his crew chief, Larry Brewer.  They call him the Motor.  They’re part of the family.  Roger and my husband Chris were probably two of the best Super Stock drivers at either track and I’ve got a bunch of pictures of them.  Every week, they put on a show.  People still talk about it to this day.  Roger Neece was our man in black at the racetrack.”

Neece always raced a black no. 22, first in a Nova, then in a Camaro.  It did not matter which car he ran, he was winning races and a lot of them.

Nate Monteith, a two-time Late Model champion at both Kingsport and Lonesome Pine, first saw Neece racing when his father, Don, was racing Street Stocks.

“We’ve been at the same racetrack for the past 20 years,” Monteith said.  “My dad raced Street Stocks back in the mid-90s and I watched him race and dominate and win when my dad raced.  Seeing how dominant he was back in the day, it was someone I always looked up to and admired all throughout my career.”

Neece was every bit an icon to Monteith as he was to other drivers and fans at both racetracks.

“That guy has always been in that black 22 car since the first time I went to a racetrack and was dominating and winning,” Monteith remarked.  “It’s definitely a big loss for this community.  He was an icon everybody looked up to.  Everything he’s done, I don’t know how many hundreds of races he’s won, it’s incredible, hard thing to do.”

Neece began racing in the early 1990s and continued racing through 2013.  He was forced to retire at the end of the 2013 season after his health deteriorated.  Last year, Lonesome Pine Raceway held a tribute to Neece.  This year, Lonesome Pine, along with its sister track, will be holding a memorial.

“We are going to have the Roger Neece Memorial at Kingsport Friday and Lonesome Pine Saturday,” Tunnell said.  “The last time he competed here, he ran a couple races in 2013.  His health deteriorated so much.  I did a tribute last year to Lonesome Pine.  He brought ‘Blackie’ with him.  We sent him a good tribute that day and I’m glad we did.”

“Roger was a legend in the hills of Southwest Virginia,” RACE22.com founder Langley Austin said.  “He was the guy who made all other Street Stock racers up their game.  To me he was a bad ass in the same way that Dale Earnhardt was.  You knew you had to beat him if you traveled to Lonesome Pine and I’m glad I got to watch him race.”

Tunnell said she was saddened by the loss of the Tri-Cities region’s greatest racer.

“I sat on the grandstands and had a really good cry when he passed away,” Tunnell commented.  “He was a really great guy.  He always had a smile and something nice to say.”

Roger Neece was born on October 1, 1955.  He graduated from Ervington High School in Nora, Virginia in 1973 and worked as a coal miner for 34 years.  He is survived by his wife of 40 years, Nancy, one brother-in-law (Earl), three brothers (Oscar, Ray and Tim) and one sister.  A funeral service will be held on Friday, April 3rd at the Puether Chapel Freewill Baptist Church in Clintwood, Virginia.

“Heroes get remembered, but legends never die.”