Robert John East (December 17, 1984 – July 13, 2022) was an American professional stock car racing driver.
In 2001, East became the youngest driver at 16 years old to win a feature USAC National Midget event[3] at the Illiana Motor Speedway in Schererville, Indiana.
[citation needed] East competed full-time in the USAC National Midget Series where he was the champion in 2004 driving the Steve Lewis Racing No.
During this prestigious time he attained the nickname 'Beast' among his loyal fans, which is an amalgamation of the first letter of his first-name 'B' combined alongside his last-name 'East', which is unlike his kind demeanor and character to those that know him, but better describes his victorious 2004 season on Team Lewis placing 1st overall in his No.
Also that year, East made his ARCA Re/Max Series debut, where he competed at Talladega in October 2005, driving the No.
[citation needed] In 2007, East ran part-time in the Busch Series with Brewco Motorsports, splitting time in the team's No.
[4] Following the conclusion of his motorsports career, East experienced depression, used alcohol, and was diagnosed with schizophrenia by medical professionals.
His parents believed these were caused or exacerbated by chronic traumatic encephalopathy from repeated head trauma suffered in racing accidents.
As East was a homicide victim, an autopsy could not be performed to confirm whether the disease was present in his brain within the required timeframe after death.
[6][7][8] Millsap was later found hiding in an apartment in nearby Anaheim and was killed in a shootout with Orange County police.