Chris Economaki, longtime auto racing journalist, dies at 91.

DOVER, Del. — Chris Economaki, a journalist regarded as the authoritative voice in motorsports for decades, died Friday. He was 91.

National Speed Sport News, where Economaki worked as an editor for more than 60 years, announced his death Friday. It did not release a cause of death. Economaki was known as the dean of American motorsports journalism and worked in TV for more than 40 years with stints at ABC, CBS and ESPN. He was part of ABC’s first telecast from Daytona International Speedway in 1961.

His love of motorsports blossomed as a child, and he sold copies of National Speed Sport News as a teenager.

“Many people consider Chris the greatest motorsports journalist of all time,” NASCAR chairman Brian France said. “He was, indeed, ‘The Dean.’ Chris was a fixture for years at NASCAR events and played a huge role in growing NASCAR’s popularity.”

Economaki, who switched from ABC to CBS in 1984, watched stock car racing branch out from its Southern roots to become a national attraction. The watershed year, he said, was 1984.

“That was the year ABC did the closing ceremonies at the Winter Olympics in Sarajevo at the same time CBS was showing the Daytona 500 — and Daytona got the higher rating,” Economaki said in the 1980s. “It was also the year that President Reagan came to the Firecracker 400 and said, ‘Gentlemen, start your engines.’ And the next day, there was a picture of him next to Richard Petty on the front page of The New York Times. After that, it seemed a lot of people discovered stock car racing.”

Economaki told The Associated Press in 1991 that even if fans didn’t recognize his face in public, they sure knew him by the sound of his voice.

“I do have a distinctive voice, and it’s nice to know that it registered somewhere along the line,” he said. “I remember I was getting a pair of shoes in Des Moines, Iowa, one time. The salesman was lacing up my shoes, and I’m looking at the bald spot on the back of his head, and he asks: ‘Aren’t you on TV?’ This guy’s got his nose six inches from the floor and asks my shoes if I’m on TV. He doesn’t recognize me, but he recognizes my voice.”

In 2006, the Trackside Conference Room at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Media Center was renamed the Economaki Press Conference Room in his honor.