Education
Vogler finished seventeenth in his only National Association of Stock Car Auto Racing Busch Series start at the North Carolina Speedway in Rockingham in 1988.
Vogler finished seventeenth in his only National Association of Stock Car Auto Racing Busch Series start at the North Carolina Speedway in Rockingham in 1988.
He was nicknamed "Rapid Rich". He competed in the Indianapolis 500 five times, and his best finish was eighth in 1989. His 134 wins (95 Midget, 35 Sprint, and four Silver Crown wins) in national events is second only to A. J. Foyt"s 169.
Days before his 40th birthday, Vogler was competing in a nationally broadcast Entertainment and Sports Programming Network Thunder Joe James / Pat O"Connor Memorial sprint car event at Salem Speedway.
He was leading the race at the time, when his car crashed with just over a lap to go. Vogler"s helmet flew off of his head and he suffered severe head injuries that proved to be fatal.
He was awarded a 40th-place finish (as a "Did Not Start"). The Pocono race was not his first attempted National Association of Stock Car Auto Racing Winston Cup start: two weeks before, he entered the Michigan race but failed to qualify.
The first major fund-raiser for the fund has been a Daytona 500 viewing party in Indianapolis, today well-attended with a silent auction and notable names in auto racing in the state as guests.
In April 1991, Winchester Speedway began the annual season-opening Rich Vogler Classic sprint car race, usually the first race at the track each year. There is also a Team Vogler classic at the Indianapolis Speedrome. His father Donald Vogler died in a midget car accident at the Indianapolis Speedrome on May 1, 1981.
He was inducted in the National Sprint Carolina Hall of Fame in 1992.
He was inducted in the National Midget Auto Racing Hall of Fame in 1986. He was inducted in the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America in 2010.
Vogler was the National Alliance of Midget Auto Racing (NAMAR) midget champion in 1973. He won the midget car track championships at the Indianapolis Speedrome in 1984 and 1985. He won the Fireman Nationals midget car race at Angell Park Speedway in 1985. Vogler became the first driver to win the Universal Service Administrative Company Sprint Carolina and Midget championships in the same year (1980). He won Universal Service Administrative Company National Sprint Carolina Series championships in 1980 and 1989, Universal Service Administrative Company National Midget Series championships in 1978, 1980, 1983, 1986, and 1988. He won numerous major national events: the Hut Hundred eight times, the 4-Crown Nationals midget car event four times, the Copper Classic twice, the Hoosierdome Invitational twice, the WWRA Florida Winter Nationals in 1983, and the Night Before the 500 once. In 1987 he won the inaugural Chili Bowl Midget Nationals race. Vogler had 170 total Universal Service Administrative Company wins, and won over 200 "outlaw" (non-Universal Service Administrative Company) midget races. Because of Universal Service Administrative Company rules on a red flag reverting to the previous completed lap, he was declared the winner of the event following his death, which was his 170th win. He was scheduled to make his National Association of Stock Car Auto Racing Winston Cup (now Sprint Cup) series debut at Pocono Raceway the day after his fatal crash. In 2008, the viewing party was moved to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, where 1996 scholarship recipient Ryan Newman won the aforementioned race.
